


Take On Me

by bonniepride



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: F/F, Fredashi, HoneyGoGo, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, adopted family fluff!, comic book au, comic world au, inspired by the music video of "Take On Me" by A-Ha, magical writer powers allowing writers to access the fictional world they create
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25082755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonniepride/pseuds/bonniepride
Summary: Fred, an orphan aged out of foster care, is only making ends meet thanks to his college scholarship from Megazon comics which he received for winning a writing contest. But his life is about to change when his idol, the writer of the Big Hero 6 comic series, approaches him about not only taking over writing the series, but reveals that the world of Big Hero 6 is a real place that, as the writer, he can not only visit but live in, and Fred is welcome to come live there too if he wishes. The fact that it turns out Fred's fantasy crush, Tadashi Hamada/Sunfire is very real as well, is making this offer sound almost too good to be true. Fred will have to discover for himself if it really is too good to be true, or if, after all this time, he's finally found a place where he belongs.
Relationships: Fred | Fredzilla/Tadashi Hamada, Honey Lemon/Go Go Tomago
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

_ “You’ll never get away with this Yama!” Sunfire shouts as he uses a blast of fire to keep the mob boss at bay. _

_ “When are you going to figure out that we’re never going to let you break into Krei Tech?” Hiro adds, directing his army of tiny robots to block one of Yama’s goons.  _

_ “When you learn that I’m not giving up until I get that experimental ray gun Krei’s building so I can sell it to the highest bidder,” Yama answers, looking for an opening. _

“C’mon Sunfire,” Fred whispers, eagerly turning the page to his comic. “You’ve got this! Take him down!”

It was a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon in San Francisco and Fred was enjoying his afternoon catching up on the latest issue of  _ Big Hero 6 _ before going in to work his evening shift at Toybox Comics, the comic shop he worked at part time during the school year and as much as he was able to during the summer months. It was a job he desperately needed--the scholarship that he’d won as a part of a writing contest for Megazon comics back in high school mercifully paid for most of his school expenses, but food, clothes, and anything else he had to pay for himself. And with no family to help him out (he’d never even known his parents and no one had wanted to adopt the skinny, gawky kid who spent all his time reading comics) he needed all the help that he could get. 

Well, at least he didn’t have to worry about paying for his comics anymore. He gratefully glances down at the mailing envelope this most recent issue of the comic had come in. Even when he’d been living in foster care, he’d somehow always managed to scrounge up the money to get the new issue every month. He’d discovered  _ Big Hero 6 _ at the beginning of third grade, and he swore that it was the only thing that had kept him going sometimes. Reading about the adventures of Sunfire (a super with fire powers who was also known as Tadashi as his civilian name), Hiro (Tadashi’s genius younger brother who specialized in robotics), Honey Lemon (a chemistry whiz and fashionista), Gogo (a speed demon who could outrace anyone), Wasabi (a super who used laser induced plasma blades to fight the bad guys), and Baymax (a nursebot turned crime fighting machine) had given him a world to escape to even on his darkest days. 

No matter how many times he was yelled at by his foster parents, had been sent to bed without supper for forgetting chores, or been locked in his room for weeks at a time for his dismal math and science grades, he’d always been able to escape to the technological mecha of San Fransokyo and bury himself in one of the teen superheroes’ adventures to forget about how depressing his own life was. And when he’d won Megazon comics’ writing scholarship contest, he not only got financial aid towards his classes and housing, he’d also won a lifetime subscription to the comic of his choice, and of course he’d chosen  _ Big Hero 6 _ . Even though he got an employee discount at the comic shop, it was nice having one less expense to worry about. And speaking of the comic shop…

“Oh, shit!” Fred cries as he looks up at the clock and realizes that he’s running late for work. Trying not to panic, he quickly puts his comic in his bag to finish reading later and hurries out the door to catch the streetcar. Andy Davis, the comic shop owner, was an extremely nice and understanding guy, but it still wasn’t a good idea to test his boss’s patience. 

On his ride over, Fred manages to finish the comic. As usual, Big Hero 6 caught the bad guys, which was always a relief--it was so nice to know that, as awful as real life could be sometimes, things would always end happily for Sunfire and the rest of the team. 

Ah, Sunfire… Fred does his best not to drool as he turns back to a particularly well drawn action shot of the superhero. Fred had had a major crush on the character for as long as he could remember. And who could blame him? Not only was Sunfire completely gorgeous (without being overly bulked up like most male superheroes, which was a nice change) and had a brilliant mind for robotics, he had an extremely good heart--he took great care of his little brother as well as helping his aunt out at her cafe without even being asked, and he also had a soft spot for looking out for kids who were in danger. Sometimes when he’d been younger, Fred had imagined that Sunfire would come and rescue from his own personal hell--even though they were the same age, he knew that Sunfire wouldn’t care, that he’d come to find him and when he did he’d take him home to live with a family who would take care of him and love him like his own foster parents never had…

Oh well, so unfortunately that fantasy had never come true. In the back of his mind, Fred had always known it was just a dream and he had to rely on himself to survive in this world. Still, it was interesting to know that Stan Lee, the writer of the Big Hero 6 series (which was a continuation of his earlier series, Magnet Man), actually thought of Sunfire/Tadashi as one of his favorite characters too. Fred had been lucky enough to meet Mr. Lee on multiple occasions--working for the comic shop, he often volunteered to work at their booth at local conventions, and he used the money that he saved on the entrance badge to buy the meet and greet session with Mr. Lee whenever he was in the area (which was often as he actually lived in San Francisco.) 

Fortunately Mr. Lee never seemed to get tired of seeing him, and Fred liked to think that maybe they had even become something close to friends--one time after a convention, Mr. Lee had actually taken him out to dinner, which had easily been one of the best nights of his life. He sometimes wondered if maybe it was because of their relationship that he had won the scholarship contest, although he liked to think that it was on the merit of his own writing that he’d gotten it. Whatever the reason, he was incredibly grateful for it, and he hadn’t been about to turn down the funding that he needed to stay alive and off the streets.

Fred was half zoned out, thinking about his last time seeing Mr. Lee and wondering if he’d have the chance to run into him at another convention coming up, when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw--but no,that was impossible--Sunfire  _ winking _ at him from the pages of the comic. Fred jerks upright, shaking his head. Wait, had he actually just seen--? But no, he must have been half asleep and imagining things. There was no possible way that a drawing had just  _ winked _ at him unless he was at Hogwarts, and he’d long since given up on hoping that he was living in the same world as Harry Potter. Just as he was trying to decide if he needed to have his eyes checked (or possibly his head), his stop was announced and, quickly pushing what he thought he’d just seen out of his head, he shoves the comic in his bag and gets up to head into work.

“Hey Fred!” Andy’s wife, Hannah, greets him with her usual friendly smile as he walks in. 

“Hey Hannah!” Fred returns. “How are things going today?”

“It’s been pretty slow, but we got in a new shipment,” Hannah answers. “Go ahead and clock in, and then you think you can help Andy in the back unboxing everything?”

“More than happy to!” Fred answers, determined to do everything he could to earn his keep here. 

He spends the next few hours busy with work. It wasn’t hard work, just time consuming, and it was nice having something to keep him busy. As hard as school was, at least it gave him something to do. During the summer, he hardly left his apartment except for work. He didn’t have any friends to speak of, and he didn’t have the money to go anywhere unless he was volunteering at a convention. Some days he had to wonder if anyone would even notice at all if he just up and disappeared… 

It was about thirty minutes before the end of his shift that the door to the stockroom flies open and Hannah comes hurrying in, eyes wide and mouth agape. 

“Hannah, is everything okay?” Fred asks, frowning in concern when she fails to say anything. 

“I-- T-There’s someone here for you…” Hannah finally stumbles out.

“What? Someone here… For me?” Fred repeats slowly--who on Earth could possibly want to see him?

“I-I think you’d better see for yourself,” Hannah answers shakily. “H-He’s in the break room….”

“Okay….” Fred wasn’t quite sure what was going on but, hoping that something horrible wasn’t happening, he leaves the back room and heads to the break room as directed. 

As soon as he opens the door, he understands Hannah’s state of shock.

“O-Oh my gosh…” he whispers, wondering if he’d hit his head and was imagining things. 

“Hello, Fred.” There, seated at the tiny breakroom table and standing up to greet him, was Stan Lee. “How are you, my boy?”

“F-Fine…” Fred answers weakly before stammering out, “W-What are you doing here?”

As soon as the words came out, he realized how rude that they sounded, but fortunately Mr. Lee just chuckled and answered, “I’m here to see you.” 

“D-Did I do something wrong?” Fred asks. He couldn’t think of any other reason that the famed figure would seek him out like this, and he did have one of the security guards that Fred had seen at a lot of his conventions with him standing in the back corner of the room. 

“Not at all, not at all,” Mr. Lee answers, patting Fred’s shoulder in an almost fatherly manner and gesturing to the table. “Come, sit. We have much to discuss.”

“W-What exactly do you want to discuss?” Fred asks, shakily taking a seat. In spite of Mr. Lee’s cheerful tone, he could sense a tone of seriousness underneath it, and Fred could only imagine the worst. What if something had happened and he’d somehow lost his scholarship? No, he couldn’t have lost his scholarship! Where would he live without his rent being paid? And he still had two years left in his English degree, if he ever wanted to be able to get a decent job--! 

“Take a deep breath, son,” Mr. Lee says gently, obviously noting the somewhat panicked expression on Fred’s face. “Like I told you, everything is absolutely fine. If I could, I’d tell you right now exactly what I’m doing here, but what I have to tell you is going to take a bit of explaining, so you’re just going to have to be patient with me.”

“O-Okay…” Fred agrees, nodding and doing his best to take Mr. Lee’s word for it.

“Where to even begin…” Mr. Lee muses, rubbing his chin as he sits down across from Fred at the table. “I’ve thought this conversation through so many times, but I never could settle down on the best way to explain everything…” 

“Explain what?” Fred asks, his natural sense of curiosity starting to overcome his anxiety. 

“What do you think of San Fransokyo?” Mr. Lee finally asks after a long pause.

“S-Sir?” Fred blinks in surprise.

“San Fransokyo--what do you think of it?” Mr. Lee repeats. 

“I-I think it’s amazing,” Fred answers. “It’s the most amazing world I’ve ever seen--and I’ve read a lot of fantasy worlds, believe me. There are so many times that I’ve thought… Well, that I’d love to live there…” 

“I think I remember you writing something like that in the letter you included with your scholarship story,” Mr. Lee says with a smile. “And quite a wonderful story it was too--very well written, and you have a remarkable grasp of all the Big Hero 6 characters.”

“Y-You read my story?” Fred gasps--in all of their meetings, Mr. Lee had never mentioned that he had actually read it!

“I did, and I found it very, very impressive,” Mr. Lee answers with a nod. “I especially liked your original character, Fredzilla. He was definitely a great addition to the world--I like that he was inspired by classic kaiju, that was a stroke of genius.”

“T-Thank you,” Fred manages to get out, feeling his cheeks flushing. “I’ve always loved kaiju… And I don’t usually indulge in making original characters, but since that was a part of the scholarship requirements…”

“That was actually exactly the point of the essay contest,” Mr. Lee explains. “To see just how good a grasp the contestants had on the already existing world and how well they could build on it.” 

“Okay…” Fred agrees slowly, glad to hear that Mr. Lee had liked his character but still trying to figure out where exactly this conversation was going.

“I can see that you’re still confused,” Mr. Lee says with a kind smile. “And I’m sorry if I’m sounding cryptic--I don’t mean to, it’s just that I never thought I would have to actually explain all of this to someone… I just grew up learning all of this from my father, and he learned it from his mother, and so on and so forth… But I was never able to have children of my own, and I’m not getting any younger, so I finally decided that it was time to find an heir, someone I could teach--”

“W-Wait, an heir?” Fred stammers.

“Exactly,” Mr. Lee agrees. “Someone to continue my work--someone to inherit the gift, and the responsibility. That’s why I created the scholarship contest--to start looking for someone who would be worthy of it.”

“Is this like… Willie Wonka?” Fred blurts out. He still had no idea what was going on, or what “gift” Mr. Lee was talking about, but somehow the words came out before he could think them through.

“I suppose that is where I got the inspiration for this, yes,” Mr. Lee chuckles. “But my selection process was slightly less random--I personally reviewed all of the story submissions myself. And after our many meetings, I was quite impressed with your grasp of the world so I did make sure that an application for the scholarship made it into your hands.”

“Y-You were the one who did that?” Fred gasps, remembering how the scholarship application had mysteriously shown up in his foster home’s mailbox one day.

“I hope that wasn’t too forward--but I truly believed that you would be the best candidate, and I wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to apply if you had any interest in it,” Mr. Lee answers, his voice full of an earnestness that surprised Fred.

“I-I did, I absolutely did!” Fred answers. “And I’m truly grateful that you chose my story and for everything you’ve done for me--I don’t know if I’d be alive without the scholarship! But… I’m still really confused about why you’re here, at my work, and what kind of ‘gift’ you keep talking about… You said something about looking for an heir… A-Are you looking for someone to take over the writing of the Big Hero 6 series?” It was almost too much to hope that this was what Mr. Lee was talking about. And yet…

“That’s exactly right,” Mr. Lee agrees with a nod and a smile. “I’m glad that at least I made that much clear. I still intend to keep writing the story as much as I’m able to, but as I said, I am getting along in years and I need to know that I have someone reliable who can gradually start taking over the story and continue it when I can’t anymore.”

“I-- W-Wow…” Fred stammers, heart pounding in his chest. Was he really hearing this right? Stan Lee-- _ the  _ Stan Lee--thought he was worthy of working on and eventually taking over the Big Hero 6 story? 

“Is that not something that you want?” Mr. Lee asks, a slightly apprehensive look crossing his face. “If I misjudged the situation, I do apologize, I’d never ask you to take on something that you don’t--”

“O-Of course I want to!” Fred cries, jumping up from his chair in his excitement. “It’s been my dream ever since I was a kid!”

“Wonderful!” Mr. Lee beams up at him, seeming pleased by his enthusiasm. “I’m very glad to hear that. However…”

“However?” Fred repeats, his euphoric mood plummeting as he slowly sits back down at the table--how many twists could this conversation take? 

“There is something that you should know before you commit to this,” Mr. Lee answers slowly, as if reluctant to continue. “Well, many things, in fact, although they’re all interconnected. It has to do with the ‘gift’ that I mentioned--something that has been passed down in my family for many generations and has always been passed on to the most worthy successor of it. Unfortunately, it is not easy to explain, and if I tried to you might end up thinking that I’m just an old man with a few screws loose after all these years of writing comics.”

“There’s no way that I would ever think that!” Fred cries. “You’re my idol, and I would never doubt anything that you had to say!”

“I appreciate that, but what I have to say is probably a bit beyond even your realm of belief,” Mr. Lee responds with a wry smile. “Maybe it would be easier if I showed you and then explained.”

“O-Okay,” Fred agrees with a nod, wondering just what Mr. Lee was going to show him. 

Mr. Lee turns in his chair and beckons to his assistant, who steps forward, looking almost… eager? Was that the right word for it? 

“Fred, there’s someone I’d like to introduce you too,” Mr. Lee says, turning back towards the young man sitting across from him. “Although you’ve never been officially introduced, I do believe that he’s something of an old friend of yours.”

“Wait, what do you mean by tha-- HOLY SHIT.” Fred’s eyes go wide with disbelief as the assistant removes his ever present hat and sunglasses that Fred had always thought covered more of his face than was necessary. Fred had always wondered why the guy never took them off, even indoors--was it just a security guard type thing to make him look more intimidating, or did he possibly have some sort of light sensitivity? But as Fred finally gets a clear view of the man’s face, he suddenly understood exactly why he was going for as much anonymity as possible--especially at comic conventions.

“Hello, Fred,” the assistant says as he holds his hand out to Fred, a warm, if somehow excited expression on his face. “It’s great to finally get to actually speak with you after only seeing you from a distance at conventions for so long! I would have spoken with you sooner, but Mr. Lee insisted that it wouldn’t be a good idea until he knew for sure that you’d be the one to continue the story. I had no doubts about you myself, but I don’t have the authority here in this world to make that decision.”

Fred numbly shakes his hand, still not fully believing what he was seeing. Surely this was a dream! But the rough, slightly calloused skin of the other man’s hand (almost like the leathery skin of a blacksmith or someone who had worked with fire or high temperatures for a long time) was too real for his mind to be imagining, and there was no mistaking those sparkling brown eyes that were the color of melted chocolate. 

“Y-You’re Sunfire,” Fred finally manages to squeak out, still hardly believing that this was possible. 

“Please,” the other man answers, his smile widening slightly and his hand still gently, almost tenderly wrapped around Fred’s, “call me Tadashi.”


	2. Chapter 2

“H-How are you here?” Fred stammers out after his initial shock passes, a million questions coming flooding into his mind. “Y-You can’t be here, you’re a comic book character! You’re from a fictional world, you’re not real! U-Unless… Unless you really are real, and you’ve been in this world the whole time and it’s just been a secret? Oh my gosh, are all of you real but you guys have been fighting the bad guys so secretly that no one has ever seen you? Is everything that’s happened in the comics really real?!”

“Whoa, slow down there, son,” Mr. Lee interrupts with a wry smile. “Take a deep breath and give us half a second to answer all those questions before you ask any more.”

Fred obediently slowly inhales and then exhales, nodding to show that he was ready to listen (at least until he had enough information to base more questions on.)

“Regarding Tadashi and the rest of Big Hero 6 being real, yes, they are real,” Mr. Lee says, seeming to be thinking his words over. “But it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. It’s a bit of a complicated situation, one that has to do with the ‘gift’ that my family has that I was referring to. Have you ever read a story that was so incredibly realistic, the world and characters so believable, that it didn’t seem possible that one person had just come up with it out of their imagination?”

Not sure if he was actually allowed to speak yet, Fred just nods in response, trying to absorb everything that he was being told.

“In some cases--most cases, in fact--that is exactly how it works. A particularly brilliant writer just comes up with a world and writes it down and that’s that,” Mr. Lee continues. “But in some cases, these stories end of becoming more than just stories. They become real places--not in our world, but in their own separate universes, or whatever you want to call them--and a very lucky few authors are able to actually create doorways to these worlds and not only visit but alter the course of events in them if they so choose.”

“S-Seriously?” Fred bursts out in spite of his best efforts. “You just write a world and it--appears?”

“Well, that part is a bit unclear,” Mr. Lee answers, glancing up at Tadashi who, Fred noticed, was frowning slightly. “It is possible, but it is just as likely that the world already existed long before the author ever writes about it. It could be that the writer somehow subconsciously becomes aware of another world and is able to write about the events that are currently happening or have happened in the past there. The main thing that we do know is that, if the author is able to make their way into the world they have been writing about, for some reason they are able to make changes to the world and alter the course of events if they need to. That is one of the reasons that this gift has to be handled very carefully--in the wrong hands, an author can be tempted to play god and completely upset the balance of the world. You’ve probably seen cases of this without realizing it in book or comic series where the plots later in the story seem forced or completely out of character--”

“Wait, hold on a minute!” Fred puts up his hands to signal for Mr. Lee to stop talking. “T-This is a lot for me to process….”

“Of course,” Mr. Lee says with an apologetic smile. “I do realize that this is a lot to take in. I want to make sure that I explain everything thoroughly, but please don’t be afraid to stop me if I’m going too fast or if you need something explained more clearly.”

“So… What you’re trying to say,” Fred finally says after mulling all of this over for a minute, “is that writers aren’t really coming up with these stories and worlds--they’re just writing down events that have actually happened in another world?”

“That is one theory, yes,” Mr. Lee agrees before seeming to contemplate Fred’s expression. “You look disappointed.”

“Well, y-yeah,” Fred answers. “I mean, don’t get me wrong--I know that it still takes a lot of skill to write those events down well. But it’s not as cool as knowing that you came up with the story all on your own…”

“As I said, we don’t know for sure that’s how it works,” Mr. Lee tells him with an understanding smile. “And, beyond that, all stories have to come from somewhere--there is nothing new under the sun, I believe is the old phrase, and even it you take away the theory that these worlds existed before an author wrote about them, isn’t almost every story inspired by another story or real events that have happened in this world?”

“I suppose that is true,” Fred agrees after considering those words.

“So it’s not as unlike inventing a world and a story of your own as all that. And, as I said, the author isn’t completely without influence on the story--he or she or they may take take control of the story as needed or as inspiration strikes them. That is what makes this gift so marvelous but also such a great responsibility,” Mr. Lee continues.

“I think that makes sense,” Fred agrees, slowly nodding and feeling slightly better about the whole situation.

“An author may also take a more active role in the stories if they wish to be more than merely observers,” Mr. Lee tells Fred with a smile. “Mostly we choose to remain side characters or help from the background. But I did spend a number of years taking a rather active role in the events of San Fransokyo--still do, on occasion, although for the most part Magnet Man has gone into retirement.”

“W-Wait, you were Magnet Man?” Fred cries--he had been completely unprepared for that revelation. 

“Yes, I was and still am,” Mr. Lee chuckles. “Which leads us to the reason I asked all of the entrants to the scholarship program to create their own original character. I feel the best way for the next author of the story to gain experience with the world and to observe the events that are going on so that they can write about them is to get some boots-on-the-ground, first hand experience.”

“Hold on! You’re telling me that you want me to become a superhero?!” Fred gasps.

“If you’re willing, yes,” Mr. Lee agrees with a genial smile. 

“Being a superhero… It’s been my dream since I was a little kid,” Fred whispers, still in total shock. “But h-how would that even be possible?”

“Well, if you decide to take up the mantle of continuing the story, you could write yourself whatever powers you want within the scope of the world,” Mr. Lee answers.

“ _ Or _ ,” Tadashi cuts in, for the first time since the beginning of the conversation interrupting Mr. Lee, “you’ve also got a teen genius available who’s already made six superhero suits and would be happy to help you out with making one of your own. I actually already had Hiro take a look at your submission story, and he’s come up with some sketches of a suit that he thinks would be exactly what you’re looking for, although of course he said that you would have final approval on the designs, just like the rest of us did on our suits.”

“Y-You guys want me to be a part of Big Hero 6?” Fred stammers, melting under Tadashi’s warm, eager gaze.

“We’ve all come to the consensus that that would be the easiest way to bring you into the story, yes,” Mr. Lee agrees. “We could introduce you as Magnet Man’s son, or ward, depending on what you’re most comfortable with, which would be a good tie-in to introduce you to the rest of the team and get you some experience out in the field before you’re fully brought on with them. And if you’re attending school at San Fransokyo State--I’d recommend the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology where the rest of the team goes, but I think you’d be more comfortable a school that focuses on the arts rather than on science and engineering--you’ll still be within walking distance of where the rest of the team goes to school and you’ll able to interact with them outside of superhero work as well.”

“That sounds incredible…” Fred breathes before suddenly something that Mr. Lee had just said clicks. “Wait, attending school at San Fransokyo State? I-I go to San Francisco State.. Unless you mean…?”

“Ah yes, the last part of all of this that I need to explain to you, and the point which may be the deciding factor of whether you decide you want to take on this role or not,” Mr. Lee says with a wry smile. “I find that, in order to make sure that I am recording the story as accurately and authentically as possible, I need to spend as much time as possible living in the world of the story. In taking on the mantle of becoming the next writer of Big Hero 6, I would be asking you to move to San Fransokyo as well.”

Seeing the slack-jawed expression on Fred’s face, he quickly continues, “You don’t need to worry about your accommodations or schooling! With my connections, I can easily get your course credits transferred from your current school to San Fransokyo State so that you can finish your schooling there--I completely understand how important your education is to you. And there is plenty of space in my house in San Fransokyo for you to live there as well--I’ll make sure that you have plenty of privacy, and if eventually you’d like a place of your own I’m happy to help with that as well. I just think that it might be wisest, until you’re more acclimated to the world, to live with me so that you’ll have a safe haven and someone to come to if things become too overwhelming or confusing. My home is also the one building in San Fransokyo that has a direct link to this world in case you ever need to step out for a breather--although most of the world of San Fransokyo is very similar to ours, I know that it can be a bit overwhelming at first.”

“Well? What do you think?” Tadashi prompts when Fred still fails to answer. Somewhere in the back of his mind Fred dully realizes that Tadashi hadn’t let go of his hand since they’d first been introduced, and he was now squeezing it gently, his eyes full of so much hope that Fred wasn’t sure he could have turned him down even if he hadn’t already decided to accept what was undoubtedly a dream come true. All of this sounded completely insane and impossible, and chances were that this was some horrible, elaborate prank that was going to end up all over the internet by the end of the night. But if there was even the slightest possibility that all of this could be real, how could he pass up the opportunity to live the life he’d been dreaming of since he was eight instead of the hell that he’d been existing in for the last nineteen years of his life? 

“Y-Yes,” Fred finally says, his throat so clogged with emotion that he wasn’t sure that the others had been able to hear him. 

But apparently Tadashi had, because the other teen’s face lights up as he cries, “You will?”

“O-Of course I will!” Fred answers, fighting back the tears that had somehow sprung to his eyes without his even noticing. “T-Thank you so much, to both of you! This is… This is everything I could have ever wanted…”

“You don’t have to fully commit yet,” Mr. Lee tells him, his tone cautious although Fred could clearly see the relief on his face. “I’d like for you to come visit San Fransokyo first, to see if you feel comfortable there before asking you to fully move in. I don’t want you to feel rushed into this--it is a big decision, and one I know that you won’t want to take lightly.”

“S-Sure,” Fred agrees, although the truth was he had absolutely no doubt what his decision would be, no matter how the visit went. Almost his entire life had been spent in misery and uncertainty--as a foster kid with no family, he’d had no one to support his dreams and ambitions, and he’d known that the best possible outcome for him would most likely be living out his days alone, working a dead-end job to pay the bills, and maybe if he was very fortunate eventually his writing might bring him some small notoriety. But here he was being offered not only the chance to chronicle the future of the world that he loved so much, but to live in it and to be a part of it. Better yet, he was going to be a mother freaking  _ superhero _ ! 

“If you and your employers are willing,” Mr. Lee says, breaking into his thoughts, “I’d like to take you back with me tonight. If you have a vehicle of your own you can follow me in it, and if not I’m more than happy to give you a ride. It’s a bit late to take you on a tour of the city tonight, but you would be more than welcome to stay at my home for the night--I believe I have everything on hand that you’ll need for an overnight stay--and then tomorrow we can show you around the city properly.”

“I don’t have a car, so riding over with you would be great,” Fred answers, quickly trying to think through his list of responsibilities for the next day. “And I’m not scheduled to work tomorrow, so it shouldn’t be a problem for me to stay over either.”

“Wonderful!” Mr. Lee beams at him. “In that case, I’ll go speak with your manager to see if he’ll allow you to leave work a little early if your shift isn’t over already. And if he does have any qualms, we’ll gladly wait for you until you’re finished.”

“S-Sounds good,” Fred agrees with a somewhat shaky nod--he still couldn’t believe that all of this was really happening to him.

“I’ll be back directly,” Mr. Lee says, standing and starting to head towards the door. “Tadashi, do you mind keeping an eye on Fred until I get back?”

“Not at all,” Tadashi answers, with perhaps a bit more enthusiasm than was necessary. 

“Thank you.” Mr. Lee gives him what Fred thought seemed an oddly cautious look before heading out into the main shop, closing the door to the break room behind him as he went. 

“So--how are you holding up?” Tadashi asks Fred as soon as Mr. Lee was gone, quickly claiming the seat across from him and, Fred couldn’t help but notice, still adamantly holding onto his hand as if for some reason he was afraid to let go of it at this point.

“I-It’s a lot to process,” Fred admits. “But in a good way, I guess?” Oh great, his words were all starting to turn to mush without Mr. Lee there to provide a buffer between him and the guy he’d had a major crush on for the better part of eleven years. 

“I can imagine.” Tadashi gives him a sympathetic smile. “I probably felt the same way you’re feeling now when I learned the truth about Mr. Lee myself--although of course back then I just knew him as Magnet Man, a mostly retired superhero who sometimes stepped in to help the team. I never understood until he explained it all to me how he knew exactly when we needed his help. Now I still don’t fully understand it, but it makes much more sense than it did back then.”

“How did you find out?” Fred asks, curiosity getting the better of him. 

“Mr. Lee actually approached me himself eventually,” Tadashi answers. “He tried to approach Hiro first, as the leader of the team, but Hiro didn’t trust him long enough to sit down with him for a long conversation so he tried me next. I’m the one of us who knows that most about all of this--I guess you could say I’m the only one who’s willing to listen this much. I don’t think it’s easy for the others to hear about this whole ‘author’ business--heck, it’s not easy for me sometimes. But I’d rather know exactly what I’m dealing with than live in ignorance--that’s just the way I am, I suppose--and it has been interesting getting to experience parts of your world.”

“How does that work, exactly?” Fred presses, losing some of his nervousness in the interest of the conversation. “You guys coming over to here from your world, I mean?”

“It can only happen with Mr. Lee’s permission, since he’s the author,” Tadashi explains. “It seems a bit unfair sometimes, but, then again, I suppose too much unrestricted crossing over might cause problems, and no one from your world can come to our world without permission either so it all evens out in the end.”

“Gotcha.” Fred nods, processing that information before voicing the question that had been bothering him ever since he’d first seen Tadashi today. “Y-You are the guy that I always see with Mr. Lee at conventions, right?”   
“I am,” Tadashi confirms with a smile. “I’m the one who crosses over the most. Most of the others don’t really come here that often, even though now they know about as much as I do. Some of them haven’t come over at all, like Wasabi--he’s tried, but in the end he’s always too scared to go through with it, poor guy.” Tadashi shakes his head sympathetically. 

“So, why do you keep coming over?” Fred asks. “I mean, San Francisco isn’t  _ near _ as cool as San Fransokyo!”

“I guess a part of me is curious to learn about everything over here,” Tadashi muses thoughtfully before looking Fred right in the eyes and saying, “And of course I used every excuse that I possibly could to come over here in hopes that I might get to see you.”

“S-See me?” Fred stammers, his cheeks burning at the intensity of Tadashi’s gaze and what his words seemed to suggest, in spite of the impossibility that what his mind was suggesting could be a reality. “W-Why would you want to see me?”

“You know, you got one thing right in your story that no one else did,” Tadashi says in an off-handed tone, for a moment seeming to be avoiding answering his question directly. “I am absolutely and incredibly gay.” 

“Oh my God, I thought so!” Fred cries, elated to find that he had been right for all of these years. But then his brain helpfully chooses to point out why exactly he’d included his headcanon in the story in the first place and he gasps in horror. 

“Oh no…” he whispers, his cheeks flushing bright red and shame washing over him in a hot wave as he remembers a particularly romantic scene that he’d written between Fredzilla and Sunfire. 

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of!” Tadashi quickly says when he sees Fred ducking his head to hide his burning cheeks. 

“Y-Yes there is…” Fred quietly moans. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I never would have written that scene if I’d known you would be reading the story--I didn’t even know you were a real person at the time!”

“But were the feelings real, even if you didn’t know that I was real?” Tadashi asks, his eyes going wide with earnestest. 

“W-What?” Fred gapes at him in shock--this wasn’t how he was expecting the conversation to go.

“Do you really feel that way about me?” Tadashi asks, his voice somewhat hurried as he glances towards the door at the sound of approaching footsteps. “I-I need to know if you feel the same way about me as I feel about y--”

“Well, that’s all squared away!” Mr. Lee’s cheerful, booming voice cuts off whatever Tadashi had been about to say as he opens the door and steps back inside, seeming completely oblivious to what he’d just interrupted. “You’re free to go, Fred. Let’s get heading for home!”


	3. Chapter 3

Fred was frozen. Tadashi, the supposedly fictional guy that he’d been crushing on for the majority of his life, seemed to have just been about to confess to having mutual feelings for him (how was that even possible?!) and Mr. Lee had just interrupted it. How was he supposed to focus on something like going to another world when the world that he was currently living in had just been turned on its head?

“I… Seem to have interrupted something,” Mr. Lee says, glancing back and forth between the speechless Fred and a rather ticked off looking Tadashi. 

“You could say that,” Tadashi answers, his tone even but the annoyance that he was feeling showing in his eyes all the same. 

“In that case, I’ll leave you two alone,” Mr. Lee tells them, having the grace to at least look apologetic for intruding. “I will just go pull the car around, and you two can join me whenever you’re ready.” He backs out of the room, carefully closing the door behind him.

“Y-You have feelings for me?” Fred cries as soon as he was sure that he and Tadashi had their privacy again.

“I was trying to explain that before we were interrupted, but yes,” Tadashi answers, his cheeks flushing slightly. “Is that so strange to you?”

“H-How could you like me? You don’t even know me!” Fred cries. “We literally just met!”

“So you don’t want me to like you?” Tadashi asks, his voice betraying a tone of hurt and confusion.

“No! I mean yes? I mean-- I have had a crush on you since I was eight, of course I want you to like me! But I don’t see how it’s possible for you to like me when you barely know me outside of a few meetings at conventions when we didn’t even talk!” Fred replies, trying to wrap his head around all of this.

“I see.” A wry smile crosses Tadashi’s face. “Well, for one thing, I was able to pick up a lot about you from watching you interact with Mr. Lee at those conventions--much more than you probably realized. And for another thing--going by your logic, how can you say that you’ve had a crush on me when you haven’t met me before?”

“Because I’ve been reading stories about you for years --that are apparently all true, as it turns out--so I know a lot about you from them. I-I’d say that’s a pretty solid basis for a crush, right?” Fred answers.

“Then would you say that if I’ve been reading about you for quite some time as well that would be a solid basis for me having a crush on you?” Tadashi returns evenly. 

“How could you have read about me?” Fred asks in disbelief. “I’m not in any books or comics!”

“That’s true,” Tadashi agrees. “But I was reading something a lot closer to the source than books or comics.”

“Meaning?” Fred queries, still completely lost.

“Your blog.” A triumphant look crosses Tadashi’s face. “And given how thoroughly you chronicle your day-to-day life and all your thoughts and feelings, don’t you think that’s a good way to get to know you?”

‘Y-You’ve been reading my blog?” Fred repeats, part in disbelief, part in relief as understanding starts to dawn on him.

“I have,” Tadashi agrees with a warm smile. “You express yourself beautifully in a written format, you know.” 

“I can’t believe you’ve been reading my blog,” Fred whispers. “H-How did you even access it? Do you guys share an internet system with us? But no, that can’t be right, or else you guys would realize that all of us over here think that you’re all just comic book characters!”

“Mr. Lee allows me to use the internet in his house in this world from time to time if I want to look up something from over here,” Tadashi explains with a chuckle. “And when I heard you mention your blog at a convention one time, I decided to look it up for myself. I’ve really enjoyed it--your journal and stories are always so imaginative and well written. I actually made myself an account so that I could comment on your posts, although I’m not sure that you’d remember me, even though we have actually DM-ed a lot…”

“Considering how few people comment on my posts, I can almost guarantee that I would!” Fred answers, his mind racing through the few accounts that regularly commented on his posts, trying to figure out which one of them could have been Tadashi. “W-What’s your username?”

“I thought I was being pretty obvious, but I guess not,” Tadashi says wryly. “Tadashi_Hamada66 ring any bells?”

“Y-Yes!” Fred cries, eyes going wide. “Oh my gosh, I thought you were just a roleplay blog!”

“No, that was definitely me,” Tadashi laughs. 

“Which means-- Oh shit.” Fred’s feels his cheeks starting to burn. “Those roleplays we did of my character Fredzilla and Tadashi--I mean, you… Y-You read everything that I.. That we...”

Oh God, he had never felt so embarrassed in his life… But how was he supposed to have known that the nice guy he’d been roleplaying with--and admittedly been developing something of a crush on, especially after some of their less than safe for work roleplays--was the real Tadashi?!

“I quite enjoyed those,” Tadashi answers, grinning as he gently squeezes Fred’s hand. “And now I know exactly what you’re into, which makes things that much easier for me if you’re at all interested in actually dating…”

“I-- You actually want to date me? After everything that you know about me?” Fred asks, barely able to meet his eyes.

“The more I learn about you, the more sure that I am that I want to date you if you’re at all interested in me,” Tadashi answers with a warm smile, gently tilting Fred’s chin up so that they were looking at each other, and there was nothing in Tadashi’s expression that hinted at anything except pure and utter sincerity. 

“I-- Yes. Of course yes!” Fred answers, laughing with something between shock and joy and, without even thinking about it wrapping his arms around Tadashi in a tight hug. It took him a moment to realize what he’d done, and when he had he half expected Tadashi to push him away like almost every other person in his life had. 

But to his utter amazement, instead of pulling away or telling him to let go, Tadashi pulls him closer, gently pressing his head to his chest and whispering in his ear, “You’ve been through so much. More than most people in your shoes could have ever handled. But I’m going to take you home now, and I’m going to make sure that no one ever hurts you again like those awful foster families did, okay?” 

“O-Okay,” Fred agrees, nodding and allowing himself to soak in the sensation of finally being  _ held _ after all of this time. Tadashi was so warm, and he smelled so good, it was like sinking into a hot bath after being out in the bitter cold for so long he couldn’t even remember what being warm was like. His childhood dream was finally coming true--Tadashi had come to rescue him. But it wasn’t a dream this time. It was true--amazingly, incredibly true. 

“So, do you think you’re ready to go see San Fransokyo?” Tadashi asks when he finally lets Fred go.

“Y-Yeah,” Fred agrees, beaming up at him as Tadashi takes his hand in his own again. “More than ready.”

The two end up walking out together hand in hand--Tadashi seemed extremely fond of holding Fred’s hand, and Fred wasn’t about to discourage it. They passed a very stunned looking Hannah and Andy on the way out, and Fred wasn’t really sure how to explain any of this to them yet so he just sort of gives them an awkward smile and a half-wave before following Tadashi out of the shop, promising himself that he’d explain everything (or everything that he could without sounding insane) to them later.

Tadashi, gentleman that he was, opens the car door for Fred when they reach Mr. Lee’s car outside, and, blushing slightly but feeling like he had his very own Prince Charming, Fred gets in. He didn’t at all mind when Tadashi slides in next to him, again capturing his hand in his own as soon as they were both buckled in. 

If Mr. Lee noticed any of this (and it was doubtful he would have been able to miss it), he doesn’t mention it, just asking, “Everyone buckled up back there?”

“Yep, we’re good to go,” Tadashi confirms. 

“All right then,” Mr. Lee says, nodding to confirm that he’d heard him before pulling out into the street. 

“Um, Mr. Lee, sir?” Fred tentatively pipes up as they start driving.

“Yes?” Mr. Lee answers, glancing back at him in the rearview mirror. 

“Is your house far from here?” Fred asks. “I-I’m just asking because I’m trying to think about the commute to work…”

“Well, if you’re going to be living in San Fransokyo with me and going to school there, it might not be the best idea to keep working here in this world,” Mr. Lee answers gently.

“Oh, right!” Fred agrees, realizing that he had a point. “I guess I’ll have to start looking for a job there. And I’ll have to unregister for classes at college and figure out how to get out of my lease at my apartment…”

“Leave the classes and the lease to me,” Mr. Lee tells him. “And as for a job, you don’t think I expect you to have to provide for yourself while you’re living with me, do you?”

“...Yes?” Fred answers uncertainly. “I-I guess I’m so used to having to look out for myself I didn’t think there was another option…”

“Well there is, and while you are under my roof you won’t have to work a job unless you really want to,” Mr. Lee tells him with a warm smile. “And, just something to think about, in San Fransokyo, as the author, you’re able to write yourself anything that you could want or need so working isn’t necessarily something that you have to do at all.”

“I’d feel really lazy if I wasn’t doing anything at all…” Fred admits. 

“Well, you won’t be doing ‘nothing’,” Tadashi points out. “I mean, being a student is a full time job in and of itself. And since you’re going to be a superhero as well, that’s like having two jobs.”

“And on top of that you’ll be apprenticing with me learning how to write the comics, with the intent that eventually you’ll take over the series completely,” Mr. Lee adds. “So you definitely won’t be idle. Think of it as an internship, if you will.”

“And any free time that you do have can be a much deserved break,” Tadashi finishes. “After everything I’ve read about your life that you’ve posted on your blog and that you’ve told me in our DM’s, you need an R&R intervention before you have a breakdown.”

“I guess that does make me feel better about things,” Fred says, smiling at their affirmations. “I mean, I’ll still want to give my work two weeks’ notice--after everything that they’ve done for me, they deserve that much…”

“Of course.” Mr. Lee flashes him a warm smile. “And it will take us about that long to get everything else finished out for you over here and to get you moved in as well, so two weeks shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

“I wish it could be sooner, but I can be patient,” Tadashi playfully whispers in Fred’s ear, and Fred has to bury his face in Tadashi’s arm to hide his blush. In response, Tadashi wraps an arm around Fred’s shoulders to pull him closer, and they end up staying like that for the remainder of the drive.

“Here we are!” Mr. Lee announces when they eventually pull to a stop.

Fred finally pulls his way away from Tadashi to take in his new surroundings. The house that they were parked in the driveway of looked much like it did in the pictures that Fred had seen of it--dove grey and simple but elegant. Not overly large, but then again Mr. Lee didn’t exactly have the need for a large house. 

The inside was much like the outside--impeccably decorated but minimalistic and spotlessly clean. It was almost a little  _ too  _ perfect---Fred couldn’t quite believe that anyone actually lived here.

As if sensing his thoughts, Mr. Lee says, “I don’t spend much time in this house. I mostly just keep it for appearances when anyone wants to meet with me to discuss business or for interviews. I think you’ll like my home in San Fransokyo a lot better than this house.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Fred answers, feeling relieved--he would have been terrified to live in this house if this was how it always was, he was sure he would stain or break or otherwise horribly damage it without even trying. 

“Right this way,” Mr. Lee says, waving for Fred and Tadashi to follow him. They go up a stairway (Fred couldn’t help but notice that it was devoid of the usual family pictures that he’d seen in most houses) and at the top and a little ways down the hallway Mr. Lee opens a door that leads into a bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it was tasteful and clean (it almost looked like something out of a magazine) but it was extremely boring for the room of the coolest comic book writer ever.

“Don’t worry, I think my actual bedroom will be much more to your liking,” Mr. Lee chuckles, seeing the expression on Fred’s face.

“Okay,” Fred agrees, deciding to trust him. 

“Right this way,” Mr. Lee says, walking over to what Fred had taken to be a closet door and opening it to reveal another room on the other side.

“Wait… That’s it?” Fred stares at the doorway in disbelief. “The portal to whole other world... Is a door?”

“I assume you were thinking of a Stargate or a Tardis?” Mr. Lee smiles at him.

“Well… Yeah,” Fred admits.

“I understand your disappointment,” Mr. Lee laughs. “But I think you’ll find after a time that it is a lot quicker and more convenient to be able to just walk through a door instead of having to go through a whole process if you forgot something in one world or the other.”

“That is fair,” Fred agress after thinking it over for a minute. 

“Well, come on through.” Mr. Lee steps through the door and waves for Fred to join him.

Fred takes a step forward and then pauses, staring at the doorway and suddenly unable to move forward. 

“What is it?” Tadashi comes up behind him and gently puts a hand on his shoulder. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s just… I’ve been dreaming of something like this for almost as long as I can remember,” Fred admits. “When I go through that door… It’s not just a dream anymore. I mean… What if it’s not as amazing as I always thought it would be?” 

“That’s possible,” Tadashi says reasonably. “But on the other hand… What if it’s better?”

“I-I guess that it could be…” Fred nods slowly.

“I think it’s pretty great place, and I’ve lived there my whole life,” Tadashi tells him with a smile. “And besides.” He leans in to whisper in his ear, so close that Fred could feel his warm breath ghosting over his skin. “It’s the one place where you and I can actually see where this thing between us could go.”

Fred could feel goosebumps on his skin as he stammers out, “O-Okay…” 

God, he was so weak for Tadashi. But who could blame him? And apparently Tadashi wanted this as badly as he did…

“Okay then.” Fred feels Tadashi press the gentlest and quickest of kisses to the skin behind his ear, and his knees almost went to rubber underneath him. But somehow, with some minor support from Tadashi, he manages to make his way through the door and, for the first time in his life, into San Fransokyo.

“Whoa…” Fred’s eyes go wide as he takes in Mr. Lee’s room. “T-This place is amazing…”

“I’m glad you approve!” Mr. Lee chuckles. “I thought you might like it, as a fellow comic book lover.”

“I do!” Fred grins eagerly at him. The entire place was a nerd’s paradise--there was more comic book and superhero memorabilia on display than he’d ever seen in one place before, and most of it looked like it was from original release, not just reproductions. 

“Glad to hear it!” Mr. Lee grins back at him. “And if you like this, I think you’ll like the rest of the house as well.” 

“Sounds good!” Fred agrees, now fully ready now to start exploring this new world, starting with Mr. Lee’s home.

“Come on.” Mr. Lee opens the bedroom door and walks out into the hallway outside. 

Tadashi beams down at Fred, squeezing his hand as they follow after Mr. Lee.

“Holy shit--this place is amazing!” Fred gasps as they step out into the richly decorated corridor. “I-Is this a mansion?”

“One of the benefits of being the author--you can write yourself any kind of home that you want,” Mr. Lee chuckles. “I know it’s a bit extravagant, but call it an indulgence. And I’ve written myself enough of a story here to keep anyone from asking too many questions.”

“Your story as Magnet Man,” Fred says, remembering what Mr. Lee had told him earlier.

“Exactly,” Mr. Lee agrees. “A bachelor millionaire running a lucrative world-wide business by day, a vigilante hero by night. Not a bad story for a superhero, right?”

“Right,” Fred agrees before suddenly gasping in understanding. “W-Wait… Don’t tell me--this is the  _ Magnet Mansion _ ?”

“Oh, so you recognize it!” Mr. Lee beams at him.

“A-Absolutely! I’ve dreamed about this place ever since I started reading you comics--which I started just about as soon as I could read!” Fred cries. 

“Well good, because you’re going to be living here now,” Mr. Lee laughs.

“Holy shit…. I’m going to be living in the Magnet Mansion…” Fred breathes, glad that Tadashi had his arm wrapped around him for support. 

“Do you want to see the rest of it, or do you want to sit down for a minute?” Mr. Lee asks, looking genuinely concerned. 

“N-No, let’s keep going!” Fred answers eagerly.

“All right then.” Mr. Lee motions for him to follow and, stumbling slightly but still staying upright thanks to Tadashi, Fred does so, heart racing in his chest at the idea of actually  _ living _ in the home of his childhood hero. 

The house was as gorgeous as the illustrations in the comic, if not more so. And it was pure heaven for a nerd like Fred, from the extensive library to the fully-stocked in home theater to the game room which had all the latest gaming systems. 

“I did update some of this in hopes that you would accept my offer,” Mr. Lee admits. “I prefer a lot of the more classic gaming systems myself, but I thought you might enjoy some of the more modern ones. Tadashi helped me pick out what he thought you might like best since he’s more up to date than me on this sort of thing.”

“Wow… Thank you to both of you…” Fred whispers, unable to believe that anyone would go to this much trouble for him. 

“And just wait until you see your room!” Tadashi says with grin, lightly squeezing his shoulder. 

“M-My room?” Fred repeats in shock. “I-I have a room?”

“Of course you have a room--you’re going to live here!” Mr. Lee answers warmly. “Although it was Tadashi who insisted on decorating it for you. I told him we should wait so you could decorate it yourself but--”

“I told him that I had a pretty good idea of what you’d like,” Tadashi says with a shrug. “And if you don’t like it, we can totally redecorate it! But what can I say? I was excited about you coming and I needed to do  _ something _ to keep from going crazy until you actually got here. Besides, I wanted you to feel at home as soon as you got here.”

“I-I don’t know what to say....” Fred whispers, in spite of himself feeling tears welling up in his eyes. 

“Fred, are you okay?” Tadashi asks, his voice full of concern as he sees one tear leak out and start to roll down Fred’s cheek. “I-If you don’t like the room it’s not a problem--”

“N-No…” Fred shakes his head. “I-It’s just… No one’s ever done a-anything like this for me before…” 

“Well then it’s time someone started doing things like this for you because you deserve it,” Tadashi says firmly, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “If anything, we’ve got a whole lot of spoiling you to do to make up for everything you’ve missed out on.” 

“I feel bad making you go to all that trouble for me...”

“Don’t. Don’t you ever feel bad for that.” Tadashi, putting his hands on Fred’s shoulders and looking him directly in the eyes. “Doing nice things for you makes me happy, so don’t start guilt tripping yourself over it. Because there is one thing I’m not going to allow if we’re dating, Fred, and that’s you mistreating yourself. I understand it’s going to take you awhile to get used to people taking care of you for once, but every time your brain starts trying to make you feel bad, I’m going to be there to tell it to go take a hike because you are amazing and deserve every good thing possible. Okay?”

“O-Okay,” Fred agrees. He had no idea what he’d done to deserve someone as amazing as Tadashi, but if Tadashi wanted him to be happy here he’d do his best to try to do that for him.

“Good.” Tadashi gently pecks his forehead. “Now come on. Let’s go take a look at your new room.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Going ahead and giving a trigger warning for there being mention of Fred being abused as a kid near the end of the chapter, just to be on the safe side in case that's anything that is triggering for anyone. If you need to skip over that part, once you reach the part with Fred and Tadashi talking about changing the temperature on the A/C unit just skip down past the part of the story that's in italics and you should be okay. Thank you, just wanted to make sure anyone reading this stays safe!))

“HOLY SHIT. THIS IS THE COOLEST ROOM EVER!”

Fred couldn’t even try to hold in his enthusiasm as Tadashi and Mr. Lee show him his new bedroom. Not only was the door made of steel and designed to slide apart when he clapped to open it (which was insanely cool in and of itself), the entire interior was practically a shrine to everything that he loved. Was it maybe a little more museum-like than he would have chosen himself? Maybe. But he appreciated Tadashi picking out furniture that would show off the collection of nerd memorabilia. And the bed--oh gosh, he’d never had a bed that big in his entire life! 

“I’m glad you like it!” Tadashi beams at him. “I tried to pick out what I thought you’d like, but I’m not offended if you want to change anything.”

“No, this is perfect exactly the way it is,” Fred answers earnestly. “I-I don’t know how to thank you for this--both of you,” he adds, realizing that Mr. Lee was probably the one who had funded all of the room changes.

“We just want you to be happy and comfortable here,” Mr. Lee tells him with a warm smile. “I know you probably want to explore around in here, and I’m more than happy to let you do that, but it is getting late so I propose that we find some dinner first.”

“Sounds good,” Fred agrees--that was an entirely reasonable suggestion. Checking out his room could wait until after they got some food.

“I think we’ll have to order in or fend for ourselves,” Mr. Lee says, leading them in the direction of the kitchen. “Usually Marie does the cooking around here since I’m hopeless in the kitchen, but Friday is one of her nights off--she deserves it with as hard as she works.”

“Wait, Marie? Like,  _ the _ Marie?” Fred cries. 

“Yes, she still takes care of things around here,” Mr. Lee chuckles. “And Heathcliff is still my butler, before you ask about him.”

“Wow…” Fred breathes. “That is so awesome…”

“I’m glad you think so--I’m sure they’ll be very happy to meet you.” 

“I’m super excited to meet them!”

“Glad to hear it. Hopefully you’ll get a chance to meet them tomor-- Wait.” Mr. Lee pauses in the middle of the hallway, a frown appearing on his face.

“What is it? Is something wrong?” Fred asks before becoming aware of noises coming from a little ways down the hallway. Oh gosh, had someone broken in? What if it was a supervillain? Sure, Fred wanted to get a chance to fight some bad guys eventually, but he’d barely been in this world an hour and he wasn’t sure he was quite ready to take one on yet.

“Nothing’s wrong, per se,” Mr. Lee shakes his head. “But something tells me that  _ someone _ isn’t taking their night off like they were supposed to.” 

He starts down the hallway again, and Fred hurries after him, not quite sure what he meant by that but hoping it meant that there wasn’t an impending threat. Tadashi looked pretty relaxed too, so hopefully that was a good sign…

“Marie, you’re supposed to be taking a break,” Mr. Lee says, his tone obviously meant to be reproving but a hint of amusement making its way through in spite of himself.

“Well I couldn’t let the poor boy’s first dinner here be takeout! What sort of precedent would that be?” A grandmotherly lady standing at the stove turns around to meet his stern gaze, one hand on her hip and the other still stirring something in a pot on the stove that smelled  _ amazing _ to Fred, who mostly lived on a steady diet of ramen since that was all he could afford.

“I suppose I can’t argue with that,” Mr. Lee sighs. “It’s just as well--he was quite excited by the idea of getting to meet you.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet?” Marie beams as she turns to look at the teen who was awkwardly standing in the doorway, trying not to completely geek out and make things weird. She leaves the stove and, to his utter disbelief, comes over and wraps her arms tightly around him in a bear hug that somehow smelled of cinnamon and just about every other good smell that could be associated with baking. 

“It’s very, very nice to finally meet you, lamb,” Marie says when she finally lets the stunned boy go. “Mr. Lee and Tadashi have told me all about you, and I’m so happy to have you here!” 

She clucks her tongue disapprovingly as she looks Fred over. “And not a moment too soon! Poor boy, you’re half starved to death! I’ll take care of that in a jiffy. You’ll have to tell me all of your favorite foods so that I can make them for you, but for tonight I hope you like spaghetti and garlic bread.”

“I-- Um-- Y-Yes, that sounds wonderful!” Fred finally manages to get out, coming out of his state of semi-shock.

“Wonderful!” Marie beams at him again before returning to the stove. 

“Yes, she’s always like that,” Tadashi chuckles softly, seeing the expression Fred’s face. “But she means well, and she’s the best cook I’ve met after Aunt Cass. You’re in very capable hands here.”

“And she knows this place as well as I do--better, quite possibly,” Mr. Lee adds. “If you ever have any questions or need anything and I’m not available, you can always go to her or Heathcliff and they’ll be able to help you out.”

“I’m almost always here, and I’m always happy to help, dear!” Marie confirms, not missing a beat as she checks her egg timer and proceeds to pull the most mouth-watering smelling garlic bread Fred had ever encountered out of the oven.

“Thank you…” Fred beams at her, wondering not for the first time if all of this was a dream because how could there be this many amazing people in existence who actually seemed to care about his welfare? 

“C’mon.” Tadashi gently places a hand on the small of Fred’s back and starts guiding him over to the kitchen table. “It looks like supper’s almost ready so let’s go ahead and sit down.”

“Okay,” Fred agrees, once again deciding that if this was a dream he never wanted to wake up from it.

The food tasted, unsurprisingly, as amazing as it had looked and smelled. Fred kept thanking Marie and telling her how good it was until she was practically glowing with pleasure. 

When dessert was finished (sea salt caramel brownies that had been absolutely  _ heavenly _ ) and the dishes cleared away, Mr. Lee announces that he was going to go get ready for bed--or, as he put it, to “retire for the evening.”

“Don’t feel like you have to go to bed now on my account,” Mr. Lee says once Fred reassures him that he could fend for himself for the remainder of the evening. “Everything in the house is open access to you--well, except for others’ bedrooms without permission, of course. And Tadashi’s welcome to stay for as long as he wants to if he’d like to keep you company.”

“Which I definitely do!” Tadashi quickly puts in as he squeezes Fred’s hand under the table.

“That sounds perfect.” Fred beams at him, glad that Tadashi wasn’t planning to go yet--hell, he’d take  _ any _ time that he could with Tadashi.

“All right.” Mr. Lee smiles as he stands up from the table. “Just don’t get too crazy tonight, okay?”

“We won’t,” Tadashi promises, although there was a mischievous sparkle in his eyes that made Fred’s heart beat just that much faster.

“So, what do you want to do now?” Tadashi asks once Mr. Lee had left.

“Well… Maybe we could go back to my room since I wasn’t able to check it out fully earlier?” Fred answers, his fingers tentatively lacing through Tadashi’s. 

“That sounds like a perfect idea,” Tadashi agrees, pecking him on the cheek and grinning at him as he stands up.

“Okay!” Fred grins back, eagerly following after him as Tadashi starts heading back towards his room.

“So you really like how I decorated everything?” Tadashi asks once they’re back inside, the door sliding shut behind them.

“It’s amazing,” Fred answers earnestly. “It’s the most amazing room I’ve ever seen… And that’s saying something, considering I’ve seen Mr. Lee’s room!”

“Well I’ll take that as a high compliment,” Tadashi chuckles. His thumb gently rubs circles on the back of Fred’s hand, sending tiny thrills through the fanboy and making him feel happier than he’d felt in--well, possibly his entire life. How had he, of all people, ended up getting lucky enough to live this dream?

“So…” Tadashi’s tone was playful if a bit hesitant as his free hand comes to rest on Fred’s waist. “Now that we’re here… Is there anything in particular that you want to do?” 

Fred shivers slightly, wondering what exactly Tadashi had in mind, when suddenly a yawn escapes him.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!” he cries, turning bright red.

“What? No, it’s fine!” Tadashi answers, a reassuring smile on his face. “You never,  _ ever _ have to apologize for something like that, okay? And I should probably be the one apologizing for keeping you up so late!”

“Usually I’m a total night owl, but I guess there’s just been so much happening today…” Fred admits.

“You’re worn out, and I absolutely get that!” Tadashi gently kisses his cheek, making him turn even brighter red. “If you want me to go home so you can get your sleep in, I completely understand!”

“N-No! I don’t want you to go home!” The words come out before Fred can fully think them through.

“So you… Want me to stay the night?” Tadashi asks, raising a brow quizzically but a small smile twitching at the corner of his lips. 

“Y-Yes?” Fred answers in a small voice before quickly adding, “B-But not stay the night, like, in a sexual way! I-I just sometimes have a hard time adjusting to sleeping in a new place, and it might be nice to not be alone for once while I’m doing it…”

“I completely understand, and I’m more than happy to oblige,” Tadashi reassures him, gently squeezing his hand. “Let me just text my aunt to let her know that I’m spending the night so she won’t worry about me, and then I’m all yours for whatever you need.”

“T-Thank you…” Fred felt slightly embarrassed--he knew he was acting like a five year old, scared of monsters in the dark. But in the various foster homes he’d been shuffled around to and dumped in over the years the monsters in the dark had often been all too real, and especially in a new room in a completely new world he had a feeling that their ghosts would be coming back to haunt him. 

“M-Maybe not actually share the bed while we’re sleeping?” he adds quickly, realizing how awkward he’d possibly just made things. “Y’know, since we kinda just met in person? But I could take the couch if you want the bed…”

“No way!” Tadashi shakes his head firmly. “I’ll take the couch. I’m not having you sleep on a couch your first night here!”

“I’m not exactly a stranger to sleeping on couches…” Fred admits.

“All the more reason you should sleep on the bed tonight,” Tadashi answers, a determined glint in his eyes. “Besides, you need to test it out--if it’s not comfortable for you, we need to know so we can change it for a new one!”

“...I’m not going to be able to change your mind, am I?”

“Nope!” 

“Okay then, you win…” Fred sighs, shaking his head.

“Good!” Tadashi beams triumphantly before adding more gently, “And if you want, I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep before moving to the couch, okay?”

“I’d actually really like that, thank you,” Fred admits with a sheepish smile.

“Of course.” Tadashi smiles warmly at him before pulling out his phone and starting to text, Fred could only assume to his aunt.

“There, done!” Tadashi says a few minutes later, putting his phone back in his pocket. “Now we can do whatever you want.”

“I guess heading to bed now would probably be a good idea,” Fred admits.

“If that’s what you want to do, absolutely. Do you have any sort of bedtime rituals I should know about?” Tadashi asks. “I know some people like to have white noise sounds or music on, or they have the TV playing in the background, or I know I like to read before bed.”

“Well… I usually like to read before bed too,” Fred answers sheepishly. 

“Perfect.” Tadashi beams at him. “So let’s get ready for bed and then we can both read--or, if you’d like, I could read to you?”

“I-I’d love that,” Fred admits--he’d never get over how gorgeous Tadashi’s voice was in person and the idea of Tadashi reading to him until he fell asleep was pretty much a pure fantasy for him. 

“You like Harry Potter, if I remember correctly?”

“I love it! But... do you guys have Harry Potter here?”

“Of course! I think we have most of the same books and movies here that you have in your world. But we can do comparisons later on--for now, let’s get you ready for bed so you can finally get some sleep. Mr. Lee got you some new clothes--he had to guess your size so hopefully they fit, but if not we can always exchange them. If nothing else the pajama pants he had me help pick out will work for tonight. Provided you actually sleep in pajamas? If not, that is totally okay, I know he won’t be offended!”

“Pajama pants are fine! Probably a good idea since it’s kind of a bit chilly in here…”

“Do you want me to turn the air down?” Tadashi offers. 

“N-No, it’s fine! I-I don’t want to put anyone to any trouble…”

“It wouldn’t be any trouble! Why would you think that?”

Fred doesn’t say anything, but he shivers as a particularly unpleasant memory from his days in the foster care system comes back to him…

_ “What the hell do you think you were doing, you little shit?” _

_ “P-Please… It’s so cold, I was just going to turn the air down a little…” _

_ “Do you pay the bills in this house?” _

_ “N-No…” _

_ “Do you have to look after all of these snivelling little brats day in and day out?” _

_ “N-N-No…” _

_ “Then don’t. EVER.”  _ SMACK. _ “TOUCH.”  _ SMACK. _ “THAT THERMOSTAT  _ AGAIN _.” _

Fred starts shivering uncontrollably at the memory of the beating he received on that day--and on many other days after that as well.

“Fred? Fred what is it, what’s wrong?” Tadashi asks, his hands closing around Fred’s shoulders, concerned eyes searching his face.

“I--” Fred tried to speak, but how could he explain to Tadashi why he had been  _ terrified _ of ever touching a thermostat after everything he’d experienced as a kid. Finally he just shakes his head, whispering, “P-Please… J-Just leave it alone…”

“All right.” Tadashi’s eyes still clearly showed confusion, but he didn’t press Fred any further for an explanation, something which Fred was infinitely grateful for. “I will. Still, I don’t want you being cold…” A playful but somehow soft look steals across his face. “I guess I’ll just have to keep you warm myself.” 

His strong arms wrap around Fred, and, after freezing for a moment at the unexpected contact, Fred gratefully sinks into the warmth of his chest. 

“How are you this warm?” Fred murmurs before suddenly realizing how stupid a question that had been. “Sorry, I should have known that…”

“It’s okay.” Tadashi starts gently stroking Fred’s hair, and Fred lets out an involuntary but completely contented mew. Oh God, if Tadashi ever wanted anything from him, there was no chance Fred would ever be able to tell him no. He had him completely wrapped around his finger without even trying…

“Are you always like this?” Fred asks, daring to indulge his curiosity--he had so many questions about the Sunfire side of Tadashi that he finally had the opportunity to ask, but he also didn’t want to make Tadashi uncomfortable and scare him off.

“Mm,” Tadashi agrees, his fingers almost absentmindedly continuing to play with Fred’s hair. “I’ve always got some fire inside of me, even when I’m not fighting.”

“How does that work?”

“I don’t really know, for certain,” Tadashi admits. “When I finally woke up after the fire, it was just… There. Like a blaze in my chest. It gets bigger whenever I need it--sort of like stoking the flames of a fire--and it just… flows out of me. And then when I don’t need it, I just let it die out, and then it shrinks down until I need it again.”

“Wow…” Fred whispers. “I-It must be incredible to have that sort of power…”

“I suppose…” Tadashi shrugs slightly. “I try not to think about it too much. It’s useful sometimes, but it can also be annoying… I accidentally light things on fire sometimes. Plus I’m so warm most people don’t like standing too close to me unless it’s super cold…”

“Well, lucky for you,” Fred says with a playful smile, daring to reach up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind Tadashi’s ear, “I’m extremely cold natured, so you being warm all the time is perfect for me.” 

A surprised look flits across Tadashi’s face for a moment, and then he grins. “I guess we’re pretty perfect for each other, huh?” 

“Guess so,” Fred agrees, grinning back up at him. 

“C’mon.” Tadashi gently rubs his thumb across Fred’s cheek. “Let’s get you ready for bed, and then I can read you Harry Potter and keep you warm until you fall asleep.”

“Sounds good.” Fred agrees, happily nuzzling into the touch. No one had ever treated him like this--cared for him like this--before, and while it was a bit unsettling at times, he was more than ready to dive into these feelings and indulge in everything that Tadashi was willing to offer him. 

Tadashi shows Fred where the new clothes are, and, as he hadn’t planned to spend the night and thus didn’t have any pajamas of his own, Fred reassures him that he doesn’t mind him borrowing some for the night. The two quickly get changed and ready for bed, and then, heart pounding in his chest, Fred finds himself crawling into his new bed (which was  _ heavenly _ soft) while Tadashi went to go find the book. 

“Which one do you want me to read?” Tadashi asks once he finds the series on the bookshelf. “Do you have a favorite?”

“Well… Maybe we can start with the first one and then over time we can read our way through the series?” Fred answers tentatively. 

“I like the sound of that.” Tadashi beams at him, pulling  _ The Sorcerer’s Stone _ off of the shelf and then coming over to join Fred. 

“This okay?” he asks softly as he climbs into the bed and slowly lies down next to Fred, seeming very aware of what his boundaries might be in this situation. 

“Definitely,” Fred breathes, and to prove his words he squirms over until he was snuggled up against Tadashi’s chest again. 

“There. Perfect.” He smiles a bit impishly up at Tadashi, who in return laughs before gently pecking the top of his head. 

“Okay.” Tadashi adjusts himself until he was in a half-seated position, one arm wrapped around Fred and the other holding the book open. It couldn’t have been a terribly comfortable position, which made Fred even more grateful to Tadashi for being willing to do this for him. 

“Chapter one,” Tadashi starts reading aloud, his already spellbinding voice even more enchanting to listen to as he starts narrating the familiar story. “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.”

Fred lets his eyes slide shut as he nuzzles into Tadashi’s warm, muskily sweet-smelling chest. Any anxiety that his body still held about sleeping in new surroundings completely melted away. He felt like he was floating in a warm, cozy bath, and it wasn’t long until he drifted off completely. 


	5. Chapter 5

Fred wasn’t sure what time it was when he slowly drifted back into a hazy consciousness, but he was warm and comfortable and that’s all that mattered. Only just barely awake, his brain slowly registers the fact that there was a person leaning over his bed, softly calling his name. Usually this would have set off a lot of alarms--how had someone else gotten into his apartment, and what were they doing standing next to his bed?--but his brain quickly identified the other person as Tadashi and he instantly relaxes. This was a dream, then. All right. In that case, he’d just lie here and enjoy this until his alarm actually woke him up. 

With a contented sigh, he reaches up to pull dream Tadashi down to his level, burying his face into his chest, wanting to revel in this to its fullest extent. And then he hears a musical chuckle followed by the words, “Well, good morning to you too” and his heart beats a little faster. Wait, just how real could this dream get? 

How real it could get was quickly answered when a hand reaches down to gently tilt his chin up, and then Tadashi was  _ kissing _ him, and suddenly he realizes that this is most definitely  _ not _ a dream.

For a moment he freezes as the events of yesterday all came flooding back--all of that had actually been real? But then all of that ceased to be important as he finds himself melting into the kiss. Real or not, a kiss from Tadashi wasn’t something to be squandered, and he decides that he has absolutely no objections to this being his wake up call from now on. 

“You sleep well?” Tadashi asks when he finally pulls away, and Fred has to take a second to form a coherent answer, because Tadashi looking at him with those half open eyes, his hair a tousled mess and a night’s worth of stubble on his face, was almost too much for Fred’s fanboy brain to be able to handle. But finally he manages to stammer out, 

“Y-Yeah, p-pretty good… Y-You?”

“Not bad at all,” Tadashi answers, gently pressing a kiss to his temple and making Fred’s insides turn to mush. What right did Tadashi have to be this damn attractive first thing in the morning?!

“You ready to get up and go look into getting some breakfast?” Tadashi asks when Fred fails to say anything more. 

“U-Um, yeah, breakfast sounds good,” Fred agrees, not really wanting to get up but knowing that he probably needed to before he had a problem that only an extremely cold shower could solve. 

“Okay then.” Tadashi presses one more quick kiss to his cheek before gently pulling the covers off of him. Fred shivers slightly at the exposure to the cold air but the change in temperature was enough to finally fully rouse him.

“So, what are we doing today?” Fred asks, pulling himself up to a seated position with his legs over the side of the bed, not wanting to fully get up and start getting ready for the day until he knew what he was doing. 

“Well, I think Mr. Lee wants to take you on a tour of the city--not an extremely detailed one for now, but enough of one that you can at least get your bearings,” Tadashi answers. “And after that, he said I could take you to go meet the rest of the team if you wanted to…?”

“Oh my gosh, yes! Of course I want to!” Fred cries, springing to his feet before a wave of anxiety suddenly comes crashing in to drown his excitement. “But… Are you sure I’m ready? D-Do you think they’ll actually like me? W-What if they hate me and don’t want me on the team?!”

“I don’t think there’s any possible way that anyone could hate you,” Tadashi answers, coming over and putting his hands on Fred’s shoulders, giving them a comforting squeeze. “And even if there was, I can guarantee that these guys are going to love you, no matter what anyone else thinks.”

“How can you be sure?” 

“Because I know how I feel about you, and the others trust my judgment so you’ve already got a really good foot in the door.”

“I guess that’s something, at least…”

Fred was still nervous, but Tadashi’s assurances did at least help a little bit.

With some minor playful cajoling from Tadashi to keep him moving instead of going back to bed, Fred soon finds himself in the kitchen with a plate of Marie’s fluffy scrambled eggs and bacon in front of him. The food tasted amazing, and having a freshly groomed Tadashi there to keep him company while he ate made it just that much better.

They were just about finished eating and Fred was starting to wonder where Mr. Lee had gotten off to (it seemed strange that he hadn’t seen him yet that morning) when the older man comes storming through, a phone to his ear and a fierce frown on his face.

“Yes, I already told you weeks ago that I would be taking this week off for a family matter so not to schedule any important meetings or events--! I don’t care how ‘important’ this meeting is, it’s your own fault for scheduling it-- No, I cannot be at your office in half an hour! No, don’t you dare hang up on me-- And, you already hung up on me! Unbelievable!”

Mr. Lee looks ready to throw his phone down on the table as he jerks it away from his ear, visibly fuming. 

“I-Is everything okay?” Fred asks tentatively--it was obvious that things weren’t in any sense of the word “okay”, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

“Fred, I’m so sorry,” Mr. Lee sighs, shaking his head and running a hand distractedly through his salt-and-pepper hair, making it stand up on end. “I truly wanted to show you around the city today, but without my permission my editor scheduled me for a meeting today that he is absolutely refusing to let me reschedule… I hate to leave you here all by yourself, but if I don’t go there might not be a comic left for you to continue on the legacy of writing…”

“It’s okay!” Fred hurries to reassure him--sure, he was a bit disappointed, but he understood that the future of the comic came first. He wasn’t about to let his favorite story--hell, this entire world!--crumble because of him. “I don’t mind, really!”

“Are you sure?” Mr. Lee didn’t seem to entirely believe him, frowning skeptically. “I know how much you were looking forward to this… Maybe if I call my editor back I can try again to reason with him…” 

“There’s no need for that,” Tadashi suddenly cuts in smoothly. “The tour of the entire city can wait until tomorrow. How about for today I take Fred to the Cafe, maybe even show him around a bit of SFIT, and introduce him to the rest of the team?”

“Hm…” Mr. Lee seems to be considering his words. “I suppose that could work… I did want to be there for his first official meeting with Big Hero 6, but maybe it will be better this way--it’ll give all of you a chance to get to know each other better without having to worry about an old man like me looking over your shoulders.”

“T-That wouldn’t be a problem!” Fred quickly tells him--Mr. Lee was a legend, and he’d done so much for him, there was no way that he wanted him to think that he didn’t want him hanging around!

“I appreciate that,” Mr. Lee chuckles, a warm gleam in his eye. “All the same, circumstances as they are this meeting doesn’t seem like it’s avoidable so it’s what we’ll have to go with for now. I promise as long as my editor doesn’t try to drag me into another meeting I’ll take you out on the tour of the city tomorrow, and for now I’ll leave you in Tadashi’s very capable hands.”

“Sounds good,” Fred agrees with a nod, glad that his meaning had somehow gotten through. 

“I hopefully won’t be out too late, but don’t feel like you have to be back by a certain time--have fun getting to know your new teammates, all right?”

“Okay!”

Mr. Lee gently pats his shoulder before heading back into the main house, assumedly to go get ready for his meeting. Tadashi, for his part, turns to Fred with an eager grin. “So, what do you think? Are you ready to get going?”

“I think so!” Fred grins back at him, a slightly nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach. 

“You okay?” Tadashi asks, apparently noticing the anxiety on his face. 

“It’s just… I really, really want to meet everyone, but now that the time is here I’m kind of even more nervous that they’ll all hate me…” Fred admits,

“There’s no way that they’ll hate you!” Tadashi cries. “You’re sweet and thoughtful and amazing, there’s no way that anyone could ever hate you!”

“You’d be surprised how many people I’ve met who hate me without even knowing me…” Fred quietly mumbles.

“Well all of those people obviously have something wrong with them,” Tadashi declares, pressing a firm kiss to Fred’s cheek. “And I promise you that my friends won’t be anything like that. Plus like I said earlier, I’ve been talking you up to them for so long that they’re all dying to meet you at this point!”

“...Okay, but now I feel like I’m not going to live up to their expectations!”

“All right, that’s it.” Tadashi stands up and, grabbing Fred’s hands in his own, pulls him up as well. “Come on. We’re going before you can psych yourself out anymore.”

Fred allows himself to be silently dragged along. He wasn’t sure that he fully believed Tadashi that the others would actually like him, but if nothing else he knew that Tadashi liked him and that was the most important thing.

“Have you ever ridden on a motor scooter before?” Tadashi as they step out the front door and into the blinding sunlight of late morning in San Fransokyo.

“No, I haven’t,” Fred admits, blinking in the brightness, before freezing as Tadashi’s words sink in. “Wait a minute… Are you trying to say… We’re taking the  _ sun scooter _ ?!”

“Why did Mr. Lee have to call it that in the comics?” Tadashi sighs, shaking his head. “I would never degrade my precious baby by naming him something as cheesy as that…”

“Oh… Um, sorry?” Fred falters, worried that he’d managed to offend Tadashi without even meaning to and completely ruined this. 

“No, it’s not your fault, you didn’t know!” Tadashi quickly answers, reaching over to gently squeeze his hand. “You’ve only read the comics, you wouldn’t know that he has a different name in real life.”

“Okay…” Fred agrees with a jerky nod, hoping that this meant he was forgiven. 

“Fred, I would like you to meet my pride and joy, Bae,” Tadashi says with a smile as he gestures to the red and chrome scooter parked at the base of the steps. 

“Wow,” Fred breathes--it was clear that the scooter (Bae?) was well cared for, and it was a gorgeous machine. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder…

“Why did you name him Bae?” Fred asks curiously as Tadashi leads him down the steps, hoping that he wasn’t prying by asking. 

“Blame it on Hiro.” Tadashi playfully rolls his eyes. “When I bought him second hand I spent so much time out in the garage alone fixing him up that Hiro joked I was just pretending to be working on my scooter and actually sneaking off to go see some secret boyfriend. So I started calling him Bae just to mess with him.”   
“I see.” Fred can’t help but grin at that--that was a fairly ridiculous explanation, but it was pretty funny at the same time.

“Here.” Tadashi grabs one helmet for himself and hands the other to Fred. “This one’s Hiro’s--hopefully it’ll fit you okay for now, we’ll get you one of your own soon once I have a chance to take you shopping for one.”

“Y-You don’t have to buy me a helmet!” Fred protests. “I-I’m sure I can get one myself--”

“Fred.” Tadashi shakes his head before pulling Fred close and pressing a quick kiss to his lips, rendering Fred momentarily speechless. “You’ve got to stop second guessing these things. And since we’re dating, you’ve got to accept that I’m going to be doing nice things for you, not because I have to, but because I want to. I know that’s kind of hard for you to accept right now, and I get that it’s going to take time to get used to it. But can you promise me that you’re going to try to trust me as much as you can?”

“I-I think I can do that,” Fred breathes, melting under Tadashi’s intense, loving gaze.

“Good.” Tadashi grins as he places another kiss onto Fred’s cheek and then climbs onto his scooter. “Now, come on. Let’s get going!”

“Okay,” Fred agrees, carefully climbing on behind him. “Um… I’ve never actually done this before… How do I hang on to this thing?”

“You don’t hang onto the bike, you hang on to me,” Tadashi explains. “Wrap your arms around my waist.”

Fred gingerly does as instructed, his cheeks burning slightly at being this close to Tadashi, especially in this particular position. 

“You’re going to have to hold on a little tighter than that, love,” Tadashi says, turning back to give him a wry smile. “Come on. I promise I won’t bite.”

“O-Okay….” Fred wraps his arms more tightly around the other man, sure that Tadashi would be able to hear his heart beating like it was about to fly out of his chest.

“Much better.” Tadashi nods in approval before turning back around and putting the key in the ignition. “Now brace yourself, Bae’s got a bit of a kick when he starts off…”

Fred was glad that he’d followed Tadashi’s advice, or else he was sure that he would have fallen right off. The entire ride to the cafe he continues to hang on tightly, no longer worried about the awkwardness of his position as he was too focused on just staying on the scooter. Tadashi wasn’t a bad driver by any means--in fact, he seemed to be an incredibly conscientious one. And he kept reassuring Fred that he wasn’t in any real danger. Still, Fred quickly decides that he much prefers to ride in vehicles that have four solid walls to keep him inside of them. 

“That wasn’t too bad, right?” Tadashi asks when they finally pull to a stop.

“S-Sure…” Fred answers shakily, not wanting Tadashi to think that he was a wimp but quite glad that the ride was over. 

Tadashi glances back at him and then, with a sympathetic smile, gently disengages Fred’s arms from his waist before standing to help him to his feet. 

“I promise that it gets better as you get used to it,” Tadashi says with a warm smile as he pulls Fred (still shaking slightly) up off of the seat. “For now, let’s just focus on getting you to the garage. You can sit down once we’re in there, but I texted Hiro before we left to let him know we were coming, and he’s expecting us.”

“The garage?” Fred repeats before brightening as his brain finally registers the fact that he was actually standing  _ right outside _ the Lucky Cat Cafe. 

“Oh my gosh…” he breathes as he stares up at the building. “Oh my gosh… This is seriously the coolest thing ever…”

“You mean it’s cooler than meeting me?” Tadashi playfully pouts at him.

“Make this the second coolest thing,” Fred quickly amends.

“Good!” Tadashi laughs, lovingly kissing his cheek before tugging on his hand. “Now come on, I want to introduce you to my little bro!”

“Do you think he’ll mind that we’re dating?” Fred asks, his anxiety starting to spike again as Tadashi leads him towards the garage. 

“He’s had a good year if not more of me ‘mooning around over you’, as he likes to put it--I think he’d be more concerned if we didn’t end up dating at this point,” Tadashi chuckles. “And besides, he wouldn’t be making you a super suit if he wasn’t planning on having you stick around long term!”

“I guess that makes sense…” 

“It totally does!” Tadashi beams at him before pulling him into the garage, calling out, “Hiro? Hiro, I’m back! And I brought Fred!”

“Seriously? Finally, I thought I’d never get to meet him--when you didn’t come back last night, I thought you two had eloped!” a playfully snarky voice answers from somewhere in the dark depths of the garage. 

“Nope, we just came back to ask you if you’d be our best man before we officially eloped,” Tadashi deadpans back. 

Fred wasn’t quite sure how to take the banter, but all concerns about whether or not Tadashi was seriously considering eloping with him (Fred was all for romance, but that was moving a bit too fast even for him!) were quickly swept out of his head as a computer chair near the back of the garage suddenly turns towards them to reveal a shaggy-headed teen wearing an oversized blue hoodie and cargo shorts.

“So, you’re the guy my brother’s been going on about for forever,” Hiro says, an appraising look on his face as he stands up and gives Fred a quick once-over. 

“...” Fred was trying to think of the best and least awkward way to respond, but his brain was completely freezing up and all he could do was stand there, completely tongue-tied in the face of one of his favorite heroes.

“Is he okay?” Hiro asks, glancing over at Tadashi when a full minute passes and Fred hasn’t managed to say anything. 

“He’s just a bit shy, give him some time,” Tadashi answers, gently squeezing Fred’s shoulder.

Something about that finally jars something loose and Fred manages to stumble out, “S-Sorry! I-It’s just really, really awesome to actually be meeting you in person, I never thought I’d ever actually get to--!”

“Whoa, whoa whoa!” Hiro puts his hands up, signaling for Fred to stop. “Nope, we’re not doing the fanboying thing. Trust me, I’ve dealt with too much of that with people from this world already.”

“You mean like Karm--” Fred starts to automatically respond, but the expression on Hiro’s face makes his words dry up before he can get them all out. 

“We do  _ not _ say her name!” Hiro hisses. “She’s like He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, you say her name and she just appears out of thin air, in  _ spite  _ of the restraining order!”

“S-Sorry…” Fred mumbles, his cheeks burning and hanging his head--great, so he’d already completely fucked this up. 

“Hiro, cut him some slack!” Out of the corner of his eye, Fred sees Tadashi giving Hiro a sharp look. “He only found out about all of this yesterday, it’s taking him some time to adjust!”

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Hiro apologizes, actually looking slightly penitent as he turns back towards Fred. “Look, I just don’t want to be put up on some weird pedestal--I’ve had to deal with too much of that in my life already. Just… Treat me however you’d treat the sibling of any person you’ve dated, or however you’d treat any other new friend.”

“I haven’t had a lot of experience with making new friends…” Fred admits with a sheepish smile. “Maybe because I get too enthusiastic and clingy and it scares people away…”

“That’s better than me, most people just automatically assume that I’m just a loner and hate everyone,” Hiro says with a wry smile. “I mean, to be fair, I can’t stand a lot of people so that’s not completely wrong, but still!”

“I guess we’ve got something sort of in common, then,” Fred says with a small, hopeful smile.

“I guess we do,” Hiro agrees, a grin making its way onto his face, and somehow Fred got the feeling that he was forgiven, even though Hiro hadn’t explicitly said it out loud.

“Come on.” The teen suddenly stands up from his chair and waves for the other two men to follow him further into the garage. “I’ve been working on this all week, and I think it’s really starting to come together! It’s a bit rough still and I didn’t want to put the finishing touches on until Fred was actually here to try it on for size, but I think it’s a good start!”

“W-Wow!” Fred gasps as he sees the beginnings of a midnight blue kaiju suit standing in the back of the garage. “I-It’s just like I described it in the story!”

“I’m glad you think so.” Hiro grins at him. “I tried to base it as closely off of how you wrote it as I could.”

“Well you did an amazing job! S-Seriously, this is like the coolest thing that anyone has ever done for me…” Fred felt himself getting a bit teary eyed in spite of himself. He couldn't wrap his head around it, why were all of these people who didn’t even really know him going to all of this trouble to do nice things for him?

“Hey, hey, no waterworks!” Hiro quickly protests. “If you start crying then Tadashi’s going to start crying because he  _ always _ starts crying when things get emotional and I don’t want to have to deal with getting both of you to stop crying!”

“Heh, sorry,” Fred apologizes, quickly swiping at his tears and hoping that none of them actually leaked out. 

“Maybe until the others get here Hiro can take a break from working on the suit and we can all just hang out in here so you two can get to know each other better?” Tadashi suggests.

“I’d be down with that,” Hiro says with a small shrug. 

“Sure, sounds good,” Fred agrees, glad for the welcome distraction--how did Tadashi always know just what to say?

“Oh… Unless you wanted to go meet Aunt Cass?” Tadashi suddenly offers, as if the idea had just come to him. “Actually, we should probably go do that, she won’t mind that I introduced you to Hiro first but if she finds out that the rest of the team got to meet you before she did she will boil me alive in soup and serve me to the customers as the dinner special.”

“Um, well, I prefer you alive and in one piece so I’d say we should definitely do that!” Fred laughs.

“Do you think that you’re up to meeting her?” Tadashi asks gently.

“Funnily enough, she’s actually the person I’m least worried about meeting,” Fred admits. “She’s always been someone I thought I’d like my mom to be like if I actually had a mom… Is that weird?”

“It’s not weird at all,” Tadashi reassures him before adding with a laugh, “And that’s probably actually a good thing since knowing her she is totally going to adopt you as soon as she meets you. She has a habit of adopting strays, whether they be cats or humans.”

“I can live with that!” Fred laughs as Tadashi starts to lead him back out of the garage, Hiro trailing after them.


	6. Chapter 6

“Wow…” Fred breathes as a few minutes later he enters the Lucky Cat Cafe for the first time. Illustrations did not at all do it justice, and he loved everything about it, from the calming green color of the walls to the cute lucky cat motifs that had been incorporated into the decor to the mouthwatering smell of pastries wafting from the display case near the back of the restaurant. 

“You like it?” Tadashi asks with an eager, if somehow hopeful glance over at him. 

“Like it? I love it!” Fred cries.

“I’m glad you think so!” Tadashi grins at him before slowly adding, “Y’know, Hiro and I help out here when we have free time… I know that we told you that you don’t need to get a job here, but maybe, if you wanted to, we could see if Aunt Cass would let you help out too? It would be a nice way to spend some extra time together…”

“Do you think she’d actually let me?” Fred gasps.

“I can’t see her turning down an offer for extra help!” Tadashi answers with a grin. 

“That would be the coolest thing ever!”

“I’m glad you think so!” Tadashi gently squeezes his hand. “Want to go ask Aunt Cass about it yourself?”

“Yes please!”

“All right, let’s go, then!”

Fred was practically buzzing with excited energy as they make their way up to the counter. Getting to actually see the Lucky Cat Cafe in person, and maybe even getting to work here part time? How much better could this day get?

“Aunt Cass?” Tadashi calls once they reach the counter, leaning slightly over it and towards the kitchen that was partially obscured by hanging curtains. “Aunt Cass, are you in there?”

“Tadashi, is that you, sweetie?” a voice calls back. 

“It is!” Tadashi confirms. “Are you busy right now?”

“I’m just finishing something up real quick, and then I’ll be right out!”

“Sounds good.” Tadashi relaxes against the counter as he waits, giving Fred a soft, warm smile that practically made his knees melt. “She shouldn’t be long. I would have told her that you were here but I didn’t want her injuring herself by rushing to get out here.”

“I-Is she really that excited to meet me?” Fred asks, his cheeks burning slightly under Tadashi’s gaze.

“Pretty much,” Tadashi chuckles, looking slightly embarrassed himself. “Although she may have gotten it into her head that you’re my boyfriend even though I think it’s a little early for us to be quite at that stage yet…”

“Oh yeah, I totally agree!” Fred quickly answers. There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted Tadashi as his boyfriend if Tadashi wanted to be, but even with over a year of online conversations and flirting, they had only just met in person yesterday. It was probably a good idea to give themselves some time to really get to know each other better before putting an actual label on things.

“Glad you think so,” Tadashi says, lightly squeezing Fred’s hand and planting a gentle kiss on his cheek, just as a petite woman who could only be Aunt Cass came walking out of the kitchen, drying her hands on her apron.

“Tadashi, sweetie, is everything oka--” Aunt Cass started to say, only for her eyes to wide as she takes in the sight of her nephew and another man in a rather intimate position. For a moment, Fred was afraid that he’d made a terrible first impression, even though Tadashi had been the one kissing him, not the other way around. But then suddenly Aunt Cass breaks out into a huge smile as she rushes forward. 

“Oh my gosh, is this him?” she cries, directing her question towards her nephew. “Is this the Fred I’ve been hearing so much about? Oh, Tadashi, he's just as handsome as you said he was! I can’t believe I finally get to meet your boyfriend after all this time!”

“Yes, this is Fred,” Tadashi confirms, his cheeks tinting a slightly darker shade of pink. “But he’s not actually my boyfriend yet, Aunt Cass…”

“Well you’d better not take too long on doing that or someone else is going to snap him right up!” Aunt Cass answers with a playfully reproving look. 

“Oh, trust me, there’s no way I’d ever even look at anyone else--Tadashi is way too amazing,” Fred answers, also feeling his cheeks burning but glad that Aunt Cass seemed to approve of him. 

“And he just keeps getting sweeter!” Aunt Cass beams at him before glancing at the clock on the wall and asking, “Have you eaten yet?”

“We had a kind of late breakfast before coming over,” Tadashi answers.

“Oh…” Aunt Cass looks slightly disappointed. “I was hoping you hadn’t eaten so recently… It’s almost lunchtime, and I wanted to get to cook for Fred now that I’m finally meeting him!”

“Well, maybe give us a little bit of time and we’ll be hungry for lunch,” Tadashi tells her placatingly. 

“I would absolutely love to try your cooking,” Fred quickly adds. “I’ve been dreaming about getting to try your food ever since I was a kid!”

“You are just too sweet!” Aunt Cass gently squeezes his hand. “Well, I won’t keep you--I know that Tadashi probably wants to take you upstairs to spend time with you. But please know that you’re always welcome here any time!”

“Thank you so much,” Fred breathes, unable to believe he was actually this lucky.

“Fred was actually saying that he’d like to help out here sometimes if you wouldn’t mind,” Tadash adds. 

“Really?” Aunt Cass glances over at Fred in surprise.

“Yeah, definitely!” Fred hurriedly agrees. “I don’t have a lot of experience working in a restaurant before, but I have worked in customer service for a few years, and I’d love to help out if you’d be willing to take me on--I wouldn’t expect any payment, of course! I’d just like to help out if I can.”

“...Okay, this makes it official, I’m adopting you and no one can stop me!” Aunt Cass says, pulling Fred into a bearhug. 

“O-Oh, thank you?” Fred breathes, knowing that she probably meant her words lightly but appreciating them more than she could ever know.

“Aunt Cass, I think you’re overdoing it a bit…” Hiro mumbles, looking slightly embarrassed by the curious looks the cafe patrons were throwing their way.

“Right, right, sorry!” Aunt Cass laughs, letting Fred go. “And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you boys from whatever you were doing! But yes, Fred, if you ever want to help out in the Cafe I would be more than happy to have you! And if you ever need anything, you just let me know, all right?”

“All right,” Fred agrees, flashing her a grateful smile and hoping she understood how much he meant it as Tadashi and Hiro start leading him towards side door and up a set of stairs which Fred could only assume lead up to the main house.

“Sorry, I know she can be a bit overbearing at times, but she means well,” Hiro sighs as they climb. 

“What? Oh, no, she was great!” Fred hurries to tell him. “It’s nice actually feeling like I have a family for once…”

“Of course you have a family here, Fred!” Tadashi says firmly, pausing for a moment to kiss Fred on the cheek. “No matter what, you’ll always have us, and we’ll always have your back.”

“T-Thank you…” Fred mumbles, fighting back the urge to cry and wondering why was this was always his reaction to all the nice things that these amazing people were doing for him?

“So, this is the main house,” Tadashi says when they reach the top of the stairs. “I know it’s not much, but it is home.”    
“Are you kidding me?” Fred gasps as Tadashi leads him out into the living room. “T-This is amazing!” His brain almost couldn’t believe that he was actually standing in the Hamada’s living room. How could this possibly be real?

“Nerding out alert,” Hiro sighs, shaking his head. 

“Hiro, be nice!” Tadashi scolds him before turning back to Fred. “Well I’m glad you like it!”

“I definitely, definitely do,” Fred agrees. 

“You want to see our room?” 

“Um, hell yes!”

“C’mon, then!” Tadashi laughs as he gently tugs Fred towards another staircase. “It’s up this way. You’ll just have to excuse the fact that Hiro’s side looks like a tornado hit it--and no, there wasn’t a storm, that’s just how it always looks.”

“Hey!” Hiro cries out in protest. “It does not! And besides, I just cleaned it since you told me you were bringing Fred over, especially since I knew you’d be a nerd and want to show him our room.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” 

Hiro sticks his tongue out at his older brother but doesn’t say anything more as they climb the stairs to the bedroom.

“Wow, this place is awesome!” Fred cries when they reach the top--sure, it was a mess, but it had a nice lived-in feeling to it, and there was tons of nerd stuff scattered throughout.

“Thanks.” Tadashi grins over at him before starting to tug him over towards a red case that was resting up against the wall. “Oh, and this seems like the perfect time to introduce you to someone very special!”

“Oh my God…” Fred breathes, eyes lighting up. “I-Is that--?”

“This is Baymax,” Tadashi agrees with a proud smile. “You want to meet him?” 

“Um, hell yes!” 

“Okay then!” Tadashi chuckles as he presses a button on the side of the case. Almost instantly the case opens up and a large white form starts inflating out of it. Moments later, Tadashi’s nursebot-turned-crime-fighter (who bore a striking resemblance to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man) was standing in front of them, fully operational.

“Hello,” the robot greets them in his robotic yet somehow still incredibly friendly voice. “I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion.” 

“This is so freaking cool…” Fred breathes, eagerly clutching onto Tadashi’s hand. 

Tadashi gently squeezes his hand in return, seeming pleased by Fred’s enthusiasm, before turning to the robot and starting introductions. “Fred, this is Baymax. Baymax, I’d like you to meet Fred.”

“Hello, Fred,” Baymax greets Fred with a slow, mechanical wave. 

“Hi!” Fred eagerly waves back, unable to believe that this was actually happening to him. 

“Your heart rate is elevated,” Baymax notes, a digital projection of a medical chart appearing on the robot’s vinyl stomach. “This is usually caused by cardiovascular exercise, stress, or excitement, but it can also sometimes be caused by underlying health problems. Would you like me to scan further to diagnose possible health risks?” 

“I think he’s just excited, but thank you,” Tadashi says when Fred fails to answer.

Baymax nods before continuing, “I also detect high levels of dopamine, norepinephrine, and dilation of the pupils.” 

“Uh… What does that mean?” Fred asks, feeling slightly nervous--wait, what if there really was something wrong with him?

“Together, these are usually signs of attraction!” Baymax answers helpfully.

Hiro, who was watching all of this go down, starts cackling so hard he has to lean up against the wall for support as soon as he hears this diagnosis. He starts laughing even harder as Baymax turns to Tadashi and helpfully states, “Tadashi is exhibiting similar symptoms!” 

“O-Okay, that’s enough, Baymax, thank you!” Tadashi cries, his cheeks glowing a bright pink. 

“I am starting to detect raised body temperature levels in your--”

“ _ WEARESATISFIEDWITHOURCARETHANKYOUBAYMAX!”  _ Tadashi shouts out, his words all running together. Baymax, though clearly eager to share more, nods in agreement and deflates down into his case. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Tadashi apologizes to Fred, looking thoroughly mortified. “H-He tends to do that sometimes… I’m trying to work on his programming to teach him tact but it’s taking a lot of trial and error…” 

“I-It’s okay,” Fred reassures him, still feeling embarrassed himself but on the other hand secretly a bit glad to know that Tadashi was actually attracted to him and he wasn’t just making this all up in his head. 

“So, um, do you want to maybe meet some of our less socially inept robots? Specifically ones that don’t talk, at least not in human words?” Tadashi asks, clearly trying to salvage the situation. 

“Sure!” Fred quickly agrees--he’d certainly never turn down the chance to see more cool robots.

“Okay!” Tadashi heads over to a partitioned off part of the room, gesturing for Fred to follow him--Fred had a sneaking suspicion that it was Tadashi’s portion of the room, and while he couldn’t help but notice that Tadashi seemed to have been sequestered into a rather small portion of the room, he got the feeling that Tadashi was willing to put up with it for Hiro’s sake, which pretty much officially made him the best older brother ever. 

“All right, here she is!” Tadashi says, stooping down to pick up something brown and furry from beside the bed, and it took Fred a moment to recognize what exactly he was looking at.

“Holy shit! I-Is that an Eevee?” he cries. 

“Yep!” Tadashi agrees with a grin as the robot in his arms stirs to life, slowly blinking its surprisingly realistic eyes open. “Fred, meet Spring!” 

“Oh my gosh, she’s adorable…” Fred breathes, hardly able to believe what he was seeing--the pokemon looked absolutely lifelike, he’d never seen anything anywhere near this close before.

“Isn’t she?” Tadashi was practically glowing, looking like a proud parent. He gently scratches the fur under the Eevee’s chin, and she lets out a happy chirp in response, seeming to be enjoying the attention. “She’s my precious little girl. Aren’t you, Spring?” 

The Eevee lets out another happy chirp, nuzzling into his hand as he strokes her ears. 

Okay, this was officially way too much cuteness for any reality to withstand. Fred wasn’t sure how the universe wasn’t imploding from the combination of Tadashi, the purest cinnamon roll ever, with a freaking Eevee! 

“D-Did you make her?” Fred finally manages to get out--the answer seemed pretty obvious, but he knew just standing there practically drooling was not the greatest way to make a good impression when he and Tadashi were still on fairly new ground with each other.

“Yeah, I did!” Tadashi grins at him, practically making Fred’s heart stop from just how gorgeous that smile was. “Hiro and I don’t just make projects for school or to serve a particular purpose, sometimes we enjoy just making things for fun. And making robotic Pokemon was definitely one of our better ideas.”

“Totally!” Fred hears Hiro agreeing, and he turns to see the younger teen plunging his arm into a rather large fish tank on his desk. It emerges a few moments later with what looked like a miniature Gyarados wrapped around it. “This is Ryu--he’s my pokemon.”

“This is seriously too insanely cool!” When Hiro gestures for him to come take a look, he hurries over to examine the robot, which, like Spring, was incredibly lifelike, right down to the tiny glistening scales. 

“We’ve made Pokemon for most of our friends too--sometimes we take them out for playdates when we need a break from studying and superhero work,” Tadashi explains as he comes over to join them. “”If you want, we could definitely make one or you.”

“What? Oh, no, I couldn’t accept something that generous!” Fred blanches at the offer, even though inside he was practically dying for a Pokemon of his own at this point. 

“Since all of us have one it would almost be weird if you didn’t have one,” Hiro points out. “And besides, we’re on summer break and we’ve been looking for a fun project to work on.”   
“C’mon,” Tadashi gently urges. “You’ve got to have had a favorite Pokemon at some point in your life.”

“I… Well… I-I’ve always loved Growlithe,” Fred finally admits. 

“Growlithe sounds perfect!” Tadashi beams at him. “I bet Spring would love to get to play with one of those!” 

“It sounds like a fun challenge,” Hiro agrees with a thoughtful nod, and Fred could practically see the gears spinning in his head, as if he was already planning out just how to make it. “Once we’re done with your suit we’ll make that our next project.”

“I-I don’t know how to thank you guys for all of this…” Fred whispers, a surge of emotions threatening to overwhelm him. 

“You don’t have to, we’re glad to do it,” Tadashi answers, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pecking him on the cheek. 

“You’re not used to people doing nice things for you without expecting something from you in return, are you?” Hiro asks after looking Fred over seriously for a moment. 

“W-What?” Fred was completely caught off guard by the question, but he forces out an embarrassed laugh, trying to keep Hiro from realizing just how close to the mark he was. “I-I guess not… I mean, I grew up in the foster system, I kind of had to learn how to take care of myself, there wasn’t anyone I could really count on anyone but myself. I tried a few times but I always got let down. But that’s just life, right? You learn to deal with stuff and keep going.” 

And great, he’d officially just said way too much. Still, oddly enough he thought he saw Hiro’s expression softening slightly, and, after glancing over at the large robot themed clock on the wall, Hiro says, “Y’know, we’ve still got some time before the others get here. Did you want to… I dunno, watch a movie with me and Dashi until they arrive or something?” 

“I… Um…” Fred wasn’t fully prepared for that response, but he sees Tadashi nodding encouragingly to him so he answers, “Uh, yeah, sure, if you wouldn’t mind, that sounds great!”

“Okay then.” Hiro doesn’t quite meet his eyes, just abruptly turning and heading down the stairs, and Fred wonders if maybe he’d just made things worse. 

“Hey, I think he’s starting to warm up to you.” 

Fred feels Tadashi’s warmth breath against his ear before he feels one of his arms circling his waist and starting to guide him towards the stairs. He wasn’t sure that Tadashi was right about that, but then again Tadashi did know Hiro a lot better than he did. And he couldn’t help but notice that, once the three of them had come to a consensus of what to watch ( _ Wreck-It Ralph _ being the ultimate choice), Hiro chose to station himself on the other side of Fred from Tadashi on the couch. It could have a casual decision, but there were plenty of other open seats in the room, and it seemed more likely that Hiro would have chosen to sit next to his older brother than someone he’d only just met. Purposeful or not, it seemed that Hiro was at least starting to get comfortable with him, even if he wasn’t fully ready to accept him yet. And even the chance of this family actually wanting him to be a part of it was more than Fred could have ever dreamed of.


	7. Chapter 7

The three guys had just finished the first  _ Wreck-It Ralph _ and were debating starting on the sequel when their discussion was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the door.

“Oh, that must be one of the others!” Tadashi says, standing up. 

“R-Really?” Fred, while incredibly excited to meet the rest of the team, was also super nervous about making a good impression. 

“Yeah!” Tadashi agrees before noticing the expression on his face. “You okay? You’re looking kinda pale.”

“I just… I really don’t want to mess this up,” Fred admits. “What if they hate me?” 

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think that Hiro is the hardest one of all of the team to convince, and you’ve already made pretty great progress with him!”

Fred half expected Hiro to be offended by this, but the younger teen just shrugs and says, “Well, he’s not wrong.”

“C’mon.” Tadashi squeezes Fred’s hand. “It’ll be fine. Trust me.” 

Fred nods, swallowing thickly as Tadashi leads him towards the door--he was still nervous, but it was almost impossible not to trust Tadashi. 

“Honey Lemon, hey!” 

Fred feels himself sagging with relief when Tadashi opens the door to reveal Honey Lemon. Of all the team members, she seemed like the friendliest and easiest to get along with. 

“Tadashi, hi!” Honey Lemon, who looked like a human ray of sunshine (both because she was dressed completely in yellow today and because of her radiant smile), enthusiastically hugs Tadashi before turning eagerly to Fred. “Oh my gosh, hello! Are you Fred?”

“Yep, this is him!” Tadashi agrees with a rather proud-looking smile. 

“It’s so nice to get to finally meet you!” Honey Lemon catches Fred completely off guard as she pulls him into a hug and then kisses him on both cheeks. “Tadashi’s been talking about you for forever!”

“T-Thanks?” Fred felt himself blushing as she finally lets him go--he hadn’t expected this enthusiastic of a welcome--but he was incredibly relieved that things were going so well. 

“Oh, Gogo!” Honey Lemon turns and waves to the woman who was coming up the steps behind her. “Come here! This is Fred, you have to meet him!” 

“Hey.” Gogo, who wasn’t quite as welcoming looking as her girlfriend, at least seemed civil as she nods her greeting to Fred. 

“H-Hey,” Fred answers, waving nervously back. 

“So--you’re the guy that Stan picked to be the new author, huh?” Gogo says, looking Fred up and down. 

“Y-Yeah, I guess so,” Fred agrees, trying to keep his legs from shaking too badly--he had no idea how Gogo felt about the whole author thing. 

“All right then.” Gogo loudly cracks the gum that she was chewing. “Cool. I read the story that you sent in. Not a bad plotline. Could use a bit of work, but overall I was impressed.”

“Thank you!” Fred breathes--he couldn’t believe that he’d actually done something to impress Gogo, who was easily the hardest person other than Hiro to impress on the team. 

“I especially appreciated the fact that you were one of the few writers who didn’t spend five paragraphs talking about my ass or tried to ‘upgrade’ my suit with a chest window,” Gogo adds with a wry smile. 

“What? People did that?” Fred cries, completely repulsed by the idea. “That’s so gross and disrespectful!” 

“It is!” Honey Lemon agrees before adding with a playful smile, “No one’s allowed to talk about Gogo’s butt like that but me!”

“Hey!” Gogo cries out in protest as Honey Lemon not-so-subtly places a hand on her ass. 

Fred, in spite of himself, starts laughing as Honey Lemon tries to play innocent. He’d been a hardcore shipper since the early days and it was incredibly adorable to get to see this in person. Still, he has to remind himself that this wasn’t just a ship anymore. Honey Lemon and Gogo were real, and they might just possibly end up being his friends. Wow--friends. Was that even possible? Could he actually end up being friends with the members of Big Hero 6?

“Okay, really guys? I just got here and you’re already doing this?”

“Wasabi!” Honey Lemon turns and waves at the man who was standing behind them on the steps. “Hey! Have you met Fred yet?” 

“I haven’t exactly had a chance to with you guys blocking the door,” Wasabi points out.

“Right, sorry!” Honey Lemon pulls Gogo inside with her and moves out of the way. 

“Wasabi, this is Fred,” Tadashi says as Wasabi reaches the top of the stairs, ushering Fred forward.

“Hey.” Wasabi smiles and puts his hand out. “Nice to meet you. I’m David, but as you probably already know everyone around here calls me Wasabi, no matter how many times I tell them that’s not my real name.”

“Nice to meet you,” Fred says, shaking the offered hand and trying not to geek out too much. He knew from reading the comics that Wasabi had his moments when he was a complete dork, but when he wasn’t freaking out over something he had an air of innate coolness about him which was even more impressive in person. 

“So, you’re going to be taking over the writing of the story?” 

“Well, that sounds like it’s the eventual plan, yeah…”

“Cool. In that case, could I ask you a favor?” 

“Um, maybe? What kind of favor?” Fred felt slightly nervous--he was worried enough about doing justice to the story without having someone in the story making special requests. Was he allowed to take requests from the characters? It felt only fair that they should have a say in the story too, but would that be interfering too much with the natural course of events?

“Do you think maybe you could get everyone to start calling me David instead of Wasabi? It’s such an embarrassing nickname, and maybe if you did it everyone else would too!”

“Don’t even think about it,” Tadashi cuts in before Fred could try to think of a good answer. “You know what Mr. Lee said, everyone’s used to calling you Wasabi now and it would just confuse everyone if you tried to change it back.”

“Shame on you for trying to take advantage of the fact that Fred’s new!” Honey Lemon adds. 

“Well, it was worth a try,” Wasabi answers with a small shrug.

“I think Wasabi’s a really cool nickname!” Fred quickly puts in, trying to salvage the situation. “Not that David isn’t a cool name! But I think Wasabi’s more unique--there’s no one else I know with a name like that!”

“Thanks.” Wasabi flashed him a quick smile before asking, “So, what are we doing now?” 

“I guess since everyone’s here and introduced I was thinking we could all hang out and get to know each other a bit since Fred’s going to be joining the team,” Tadashi answers. 

“Hanging out sounds good!” Honey Lemon agrees eagerly before beaming at Fred. “We all want to get to know you better, Freddy!”

“Wow, I… I-I can’t believe that you guys actually want to get to know me, but sure!” Fred answers, feeling like someone was reaching inside of his chest and squeezing his heart (but not in a bad way--in fact in a very, very good way.)

“Why wouldn’t we want to get to know you?” Wasabi asks, frowning in confusion. 

“I guess just no one else has before now?” Fred answers with a small shrug.

“Well that’s pretty messed up--you seem like a pretty cool guy to have as a friend,” Wasabi tells him. 

“How can you say that when you barely know me?” Fred protests. 

“Well, for one thing, we read the story that you wrote and we know what Tadashi’s told us about you, so that’s some pretty good information to go on,” Gogo points out. 

“And I can definitely say from the time I’ve spent with you that you’re going to fit in great with the team,” Hiro adds. “I mean--most of us here are misfits and that’s why we get along so great. So if anyone’s going to be a good fit for you, it’s us.”

“I--I don’t know what to say,” Fred whispers, starting to feel a bit choked up.

“Well, why don’t you start by telling us your story?” Honey Lemon answers with a warm smile. “You know so much about us. We want to know all about you too!”

“I-I don’t know,” Fred mumbles. “I don’t know if my life’s very interesting…”

“Nope. Turnabout fair play, you’ve been reading comics about us for years so we get to know all the gritty details about you too,” Gogo answers, and Fred might have thought she was sounding harsh if he hadn’t seen the slight smile pulling at the edges of her lips as she pushes him down onto a chair. “So sit your butt down and start spilling.”

“It’s okay,” Tadashi says encouragingly, sitting down next to Fred (who was freezing like a deer in the headlights under all this pressure) and squeezing his hand for support. “Just... start from the beginning.”

Fred still wasn’t sure about this, but everyone was looking at him so expectantly that finally he caved in, hoping that he wasn’t making a major mistake. “Okay. So I guess if we’re starting at the very beginning I was born in San Francisco--”

It was easily the most talking that Fred had ever done at one time in his life, and he kept waiting for the others to get bored or tell him to stop, but instead they kept pushing him to keep going, asking questions and getting him to share more stories about what it was like growing up in a city both so similar to and so different from this one. Fred was relieved that he wasn’t the only one doing the talking--the others would often break in with stories of their own, and he had quite a lot of questions about life in San Fransokyo as well. He felt nervous and stiff all throughout the beginning of the conversation, but eventually he found himself relaxing, and even forgetting that he was talking to the characters from his favorite comic series. They were all so similar to how he’d always imagined them, but they also kept surprising him too, and something about that just made them all feel so much more  _ real _ , which was even better than if they’d been exactly like he’s always pictured them. 

Somewhere in the middle of all of their conversation, Aunt Cass came upstairs to check on all of them (Fred greatly appreciated that she went out of her way to privately ask him if he was adjusting okay and make sure that he wasn’t feeling overwhelmed) and she ended up providing them with snacks from down in the cafe, as well as a platter of her famous hot wings (which were just as mouth scorching but delicious as they looked.)

Sometime much later into the afternoon, Hiro proposed that they all go down to the garage for Fred to give his suit it’s first try-on to make sure that it was fitting properly, and before Fred knew what was happening he was being escorted by the rest of his team (it was insane to think that he was really a part of the team, but everyone was being so nice and accepting that it actually was starting to feel real.) He was incredibly nervous about trying on the suit--there was something about trying it on that he felt would make or break all of this being true. Everything so far was so incredibly unbelievable, it didn’t seem like it could be really happening. And his brain had randomly decided that the reality of this situation cruxed on the suit. Everything else had been leading up to this moment, but actually having his own super suit was the very height of his fantasy. He was half convinced that the moment he put on the suit he would wake up and find that all of this had just been a crazy, incredibly realistic dream and that he was back to his miserable, incredibly ordinary life. That’s why it was with slightly shaking limbs that, with Tadashi’s help, he climbed into the suit, prepared for all of this to disappear right before his eyes. 

But it didn’t. Everything stayed exactly the way that it was. He was still here, in the Hamada’s garage, surrounded by his team. Tadashi was standing next to him, grinning at him with pure adoration shining in his eyes. And he was wearing his very own super suit. Nothing had ever felt so right. 

“Whoa, hey, if you don’t like it you don’t have to wear it!” Hiro cries when Fred breaks down and starts crying in spite of himself. 

“I-It’s not that! I just… This all so, so amazing… I can’t believe that it’s actually happening to me,” Fred manages to get out. 

“Awww, Freddy!” Fred unexpectedly found himself being pulled into a hug by Honey Lemon, and then Tadashi joined in, and suddenly he found himself in the middle of a giant group hug as the rest of the team joins in.

“Just go with it, group hugs are kinda a thing with us,” Tadashi whispers into his ear. 

“Okay,” Fred agrees, allowing himself to just melt into the embrace. He’d never felt so loved and accepted in his life, and he’d finally decided to stop second guessing this and just accept it.

“Well, it looks like things are going well here!”

The group hug almost instantly breaks apart, and Fred could see everyone going on the defensive until they spotted Mr. Lee standing in the door. 

“Sorry to startle you, your aunt let me in,” Mr. Lee says with a smile as he walks into the garage. “But I’m very glad to see that everyone’s settling in nicely. And Hiro, very well done on the suit, it’s looking absolutely superb.” 

“Thanks!” Hiro grins at him. “It’s not done yet but it looks like it at least fits so far!” 

“Wonderful!” Mr. Lee beams at him before turning to Fred. “And how are you doing? Still holding up alright?” 

“Yeah, I am!” Fred reassures him, realizing that it was probably still evident that he’d been crying and quickly pulling one of his arms out of the suit arm to wipe away any tears left on his face. “I really, really am. This is probably the best night of my life. Well, y’know, after last night!”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Mr. Lee smiles warmly at him. “You look like a real hero in that suit.”

“Really?” Fred asks hopefully. 

“Really. I know you’re going to be a great superhero--and a great author too,” Mr. Lee answers with a warm smile. 

“Thanks Dad...” The words come out before Fred even has time to think them through, and as soon as he’s said them he realizes his mistake. Shit, shit, shit, how had he made this perfect moment so awkward?

But then Mr. Lee just chuckles and pulls him into a hug, saying, “You’re welcome… son.” 

And Fred finally knew that he was home. Surrounded by people that he cared about and who somehow inexplicably cared about him too, he was home. 

\--------------

_ “Guys, it’s getting pretty crazy in here! I think we’re outnumbered!” Hiro calls to the rest of the team as Yama’s robot guards surround them.  _

_ “No way! We’re not going down to a guy like Yama!” Gogo answers, looking for an opening.  _

_ “There are hundreds of them! How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?” Wasabi cries, desperately searching for an opening.  _

_ “I’m trying to burn a path out but there’s too many of them!” Sunfire shouts. “If there was someone on the other side helping me I might be able to make a good opening, but as soon as I start clearing one more move in to take their place!” _

_ As if reading his thoughts, suddenly the door to the underground lair opens and a huge burst of fire blazes through the robotic guards, disabling a large swath of them. Sunfire, taking advantage of the guards’ momentary confusion, sends another blaze through the robots directly in front of him, completing the path to the door.  _

_ “Guys, c’mon, let’s go!” He waves to the others to follow him, and they race towards the door, hoping that whoever (or whatever) was outside was a friend rather than a foe. _

_ “Follow me, I found a way out of here!” a man in a blue and red kaiju suit (or was he a real kaiju?) calls to them as they race out into the hallway.  _

_ The team exchanges glances, not sure if they should trust this stranger. But the robot guards were starting to recover and head towards the door to follow them so it didn’t seem that they had many better options.  _

_ “Who are you?” Sunfire calls after the mysterious stranger as they follow him through the hallways.  _

_ “Me?” the kaiju answers. “You can call me Fredzilla!” _

“Babe, c’mon, you’re going to be late for your first day of classes!” 

“Sorry, hold on, I’m just trying to jot down a few more plot points from our first mission together!”

“Fred, we need to go!”

“Hey!” Fred protests when his notebook is suddenly pulled out of his hands, playfully glaring when he sees Tadashi taking it and putting it inside his own backpack. 

“You can have this back  _ after _ you finish classes for the day--I don’t want you getting distracted on your first day at SF State,” Tadashi answers firmly before leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead. “Now let’s go, everyone’s waiting.”

“You know that you don’t all have to walk me to my first class of the day, right?” Fred says, fighting back a grin--it was impossible not to smile when Tadashi was being so cute. “I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb!”

“Well good, because even though you’re attending SF State we want everyone to know that in our hearts you belong at SFIT,” Tadashi laughs, taking Fred’s hand in his own as they join the others at the door to the cafe. “Especially since you won at mascot tryouts and you’re going to be SFIT’s new mascot! Besides, I need to make sure that everyone there knows that my gorgeous boyfriends is already very much taken.”

“You know that I’ll never have eyes for anyone else, right?” Fred says, pecking Tadashi on the cheek.

“I know that--but I’d rather make sure that everyone else on your campus knows that if they ever try to pull anything that they’re going to have all of us to answer to,” Tadashi answers, pecking him back. 

“Guys, we get it, you’re ridiculously in love, now let’s move it before we’re all late!” Hiro groans loudly.

“All right, all right, we’re coming!” Tadashi laughs as he and Fred follow the others outside.

“Have a great day! I’ll see all of you back here tonight for your first-day-of-the-school-year celebration dinner!” Aunt Cass calls from the counter. 

“See you tonight!” Tadashi and the rest of the team wave back to her. 

“Your dad’s coming, right?” Tadashi asks Fred, causing him to grin as he holds door open for him and then captures his hand in his own as they walk down the street together. 

“Yeah, he triple checked to make sure that his schedule is completely clear so he can make it tonight,” Fred agrees. 

He could still hardly believe that so much had happened over the rest of the summer. He’d officially moved in with Mr. Lee (who at this point he was completely comfortable with calling Dad after Mr. Lee had told him he’d be more than happy to step in as an adopted father if that’s what he wanted) and transferred school to SF State. Hiro had finished his suit, and he’d already been on his first mission with the team, which had been both one of the most terrifying and thrilling events of his life, and Mr. Lee was letting him help with making the comic that would introduce Fredzilla as a regular member of the Big Hero 6 (soon to be 7) team. And at the very end of summer, Tadashi had officially asked him to be his boyfriend over a ridiculously romantic dinner and of course Fred had said yes. 

Life here in San Fransokyo wasn’t perfect. He had good days and bad days, just like in San Francisco. And being a superhero wasn’t perfect either--going up against real bad guys was a lot scarier than it looked in the comics. But Fred was glad that things weren’t perfect. Because being imperfect meant that they were  _ real _ . They were real, and this life was real, and Tadashi and his new family and friends were all amazingly, wonderfully real. Fred wasn’t alone anymore, and he had all the love that he needed. And that was better than any story he could have ever written for himself. 


End file.
